In the years before and during World War II, the United States Army conducted a series of military maneuvers in north-central Louisiana. The two biggest maneuvers occurred in May 1940 and September 1941. The Louisiana Maneuvers are credited with helping to prepare the U.S. armed forces for World War II. Previous studies of the 1940 and 1941 maneuvers have focused on the day-to-day activities during the maneuvers or the generals behind the maneuvers. This study will focus on the impacts of the maneuvers on the soldiers themselves and on the citizens of north-central Louisiana who lived in the maneuver area. This study will also focus on how the Louisiana state government worked with the U.S. army to get the maneuvers.

A memoir that focuses on the complications of growing as the only daughter of a mother from Okinawa and a father from the United States. They met at a nightclub, where her mother worked as a waitress, outside an Army base, where her father was stationed during U.S. Military occupation of the island. These marriages between Okinawan women and U.S. Servicemen have been quite common since 1945, after the Battle of Okinawa, when a massive complex of bases was first established. Okinawan women must leave their homes and their families to follow their husbands to the United States, where they are faced with challenges of racism, language barriers and isolation. Their children often grow up rejecting and resenting their Okinawan identities, causing further alienation.

Gay men and women have existed in the United States and in the armed forces much longer than legally and socially permitted. By World War II, a cultural shift began within the gay communities of the United States as thousands of gay men and women enlisted in the armed forces. Military policies barred gay service members by reinforcing stereotypes that gay men threatened the wellbeing of other soldiers. Such policies fostered the idea that only particular kinds of men could adequately serve. There were two opposing outcomes for the service of returning gay and lesbian veterans. For many hiding their sexuality from public view, they were granted benefits for their service to the country. For others not as lucky, they received nothing and were stripped of their benefits and rank. With the benefits of the new GI Bill, millions of veterans attended schools and bought homes immediately after the war, and the 1950s marked a new era in the course of the United States. But the Cold War’s deep fear of communism and subversives gripped the United States at the highest levels of government and permeated to the rest of society. This thesis examines the experiences of gay men and women in the American military in World War II and the early Cold War. Particularly after World War II, their experiences as veterans were not only limited to their time in service, but extended far into their civilian lives. This research primarily incorporates scholarly sources from 1981 to present with early gay magazines of the 1950s and 1960s and other archival materials available through the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.

My dissertation project, Die Gruppe ZERO: Working through Wartime Trauma, analyzes the art, publications, and demonstrations of the art movement Zero. Zero’s core artists, Otto Piene, Heinz Mack, and Günther Uecker worked in West Germany and emerged as a group in West German in 1957. They worked together until they officially disbanded in 1966. My project investigates the specific historical context of Zero, which encompasses the artists’ experience of World War II, its dismal aftermath, the rise of the Wirtschaftswunder (Economic Miracle), and the mounting tensions of the Cold War. In between the lines of Zero manifestos, which are wildly riddled with utopian rhetoric, were the sentiments of their dark reality. Zero artists’ desire to create all-consuming visual phenomena for the observer stemmed directly from their own immersive experience on the ground during the aerial raids of World War II. Zero artists desired to erase the terrorizing charge embedded in the memory of the past and the fears of the present, through bodily experience that would give survivors a new sense of personal agency.

During the years of World War II the faculties of the public schools in Utah, as well as in the rest of the nation, were depleted to a serious extent, and enrollment in teacher training institutions throughout the country decreased. Because of this condition the State Department of Education in Utah as well as in other states was forced to issue letters of authorization to teachers who could not meet standard certification requirements in order to staff the schools. Many of these teachers are still teaching today. The purpose of this study is to obtain information regarding the supply of and demand for elementary teachers in the state of Utah for the period 1946-1949, and to predict the demand for teachers to 1955-56. an attempt will be made to answer the following questions: Did the state gain ground by having an increased percentage of qualified teachers during the three year period (1946-1949) assuming that the number of teaching positions remaind the same? If gains were made, how long will it take to equalize the situation? Assuming present practices will not equalize supply and demand by 1956, how much of an increase in supply will be needed by 1956? From evidences that we have on changing demand from increased population, increased educational services, e.g. kindergarten and decrease in class size, how much of an increase in suppy will be needed by 1956? Only the supply of and demand for teachers of the elementary school will be dealt with in this study. The supply of and demand for secondary teachers is treated in another study that is being done in conjuction with this one.

During World War II, black women migrated largely out of the South to take advantage of the growing defense industries in California. Black women flocked to the shipbuilding industry in Richmond for the great economic opportunities industrial jobs offered. What they found when they arrived and attempted to secure jobs in the shipyards hardly lived up to their dreams and expectations. Black women found themselves faced with dual discrimination due to their race and gender. The shortage of available manpower opened up the traditionally white male shipbuilding industry to women and minorities but it did not guarantee them equal treatment or employment opportunities. Women faced hostile treatment from their male coworkers, especially in the form of sexual harassment, while black workers experienced racist comments and behavior. Black women experienced both gender and racial harassment. Yet, they chose not to fight against the interpersonal discrimination they experienced in the workplace. Black women fought against the dual discrimination that hindered their employment opportunities. The shipyards and the union worked together to limit the employment opportunities of black women. They practiced many methods of discrimination that denied black women jobs. The union used residency requirements and a quota system to limit black women’s access to shipyard jobs. This discrimination extended beyond hiring practices. The shipyards and union worked together to keep black women out of skilled occupations regardless of their training and prior experience. They also denied black women access to supervisory positions. These discriminatory policies and practices severely limited the employment opportunities of black women but they continuously fought for greater access to jobs and sought government support for their efforts. As black women confronted this double burden due to their race and gender, they fought most strongly against discrimination that affected their employment opportunities. They migrated to the Bay Area to take advantage of industrial jobs in the shipbuilding industry and they did everything in their power to acquire these jobs despite the many forms of discrimination that attempted to thwart their plans.

Durant la période de l’Occupation de la France, la frontière franco-suisse est bien gardée par les Allemands, secondés par les douaniers français, et les Suisses. Ses franchissements sont sévèrement réglementés. Les autorisations sont délivrées au compte-goutte. Elle se veut une barrière hermétique pour lutter par exemple, du côté allemand, contre la fuite de prisonniers de guerre ou de gens persécutés, l’espionnage, le marché noir, et, du côté suisse, contre l’afflux de réfugiés clandestins et la contrebande. Elle est doublée d’une zone interdite, sur sol français, dans laquelle il faut montrer patte blanche pour circuler. En principe donc, l’espace à proximité de la frontière est supposé être un no man’s land mort, occupé uniquement par les sentinelles.Mais, dans la réalité, cet objectif est bien loin d’être atteint. L’espace de la frontière est le lieu d’une intense activité clandestine. L’élément clé en est le passeur. Ce dernier est généralement soutenu par les « by-standers », soit les frontaliers qui, sans franchir eux-mêmes la frontière, leur offrent une assistance logistique (hébergement, nourriture, …). Grâce à ces réseaux, une masse hétéroclite de personnes et de choses, voire d’animaux, franchissent la frontière dans les deux sens : réfugiés juifs, prisonniers de guerre français ou polonais, espions suisses et alliés, résistants et maquisards français, marchandises de tous genres, courrier, etc.La mission du Service de renseignements suisse (SR) est de fournir au commandant en chef de l’armée et à l’Etat-major général les informations dont ils ont besoin pour prendre leurs décisions. L’acquisition de l’information est en théorie la tâche des postes extérieurs répartis le long de la frontière, ainsi que des centrales de collecte. Parmi les différentes méthodes employées pour rassembler les renseignements figurent l’étude des rapports des attachés militaires à l’étranger, l’exploitation des lignes de renseignement, mais aussi l’envoi de l’autre côté de la frontière suisse d’agents en mission.Les bons résultats du SR obtenus entre 1940 et 1944 sont dus en grande partie à la collaboration mise en place, à tous les niveaux, avec les services de renseignement étrangers et les réseaux de résistance. La Suisse a en effet été choisie par bon nombre d’organisations alliées comme plaque-tournante pour leurs réseaux de renseignement. Les informations convergent de toute l’Europe vers les représentations diplomatiques établies en Suisse avant d’être transmises par celles-ci, via des postes émetteurs, à destination de Londres, Moscou ou Washington.Que ce soit au niveau du commandement du SR ou des postes extérieurs, les hommes de Roger Masson tirent avantage de ce flux et établissent un rapport de donnant-donnant avec les réseaux étrangers. En échange d’informations pouvant intéresser la défense nationale, ils organisent le franchissement de la frontière aux agents étrangers et laissent les agents de la communauté internationale du renseignement vaquer à leurs occupations en toute impunité sur le territoire helvétique.Le SR est parfaitement intégré dans la communauté internationale du renseignement établie sur le territoire suisse durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Sur le terrain, il partage ses agents et ses passeurs avec les réseaux étrangers. / The Franco-Swiss border was well guarded during the French occupation, on the one side by the Germans, seconded by the French customs and on the other, by the Swiss. Border crossings were strictly controlled and the border was supposed to be water-tight. The French side of the border was doubled by a first zone accessible only by special authorisation, and a second forbidden zone 1 to 3 km wide stretching along the frontier. In the minds of the German occupying forces, this corridor along the border was supposed to be a no man’s land in which only the border guards patrolled.This ideal was a long way from being the achieved, since the corridor was the scene of intense clandestine activity. The key player was the ‘passeur’ who smuggled across the border and who was usually assisted by by-standers, residents on both sides of the border-zone who did not cross the border themselves, but who supplied the logistical support of safe houses, food etc… Thanks to this network of smugglers and by-standers, a heterogeneous mass of people, objects and even animals crossed the border in both directions – French and Polish POWs, Jewish refugees, Allied airmen, Swiss and Allied spies, French resistance fighters, post, and all sorts of merchandise…The Swiss Intelligence Service (SR) was tasked with supplying the commander-in-chief and the AHQ with the information which would allow them to lead the army. The collection of information was in theory the task of the outposts spread along the border as well as of the central stations. Amongst the various methods used to collect the raw information – such as the questioning of travellers and deserters, the study of reports issued by Swiss military attachés abroad and the exploitation of intelligence lines– the SR sent agents on missions beyond the Swiss borders.Part of the mechanism which allowed the SR to be well informed between 1940 and 1944, was its collaboration at all levels with the foreign secret services and the resistance networks. In fact a number of Allied organisations chose Switzerland as the hub of their intelligence networks. Information converged from all over Europe towards the embassies and consulates established in Switzerland, and these in turn transmitted it via radio emitters from their delegations, or via clandestine ones, to London, Moscow or Washington.Whether it was at the level of the head of the SR, or of the listening posts, Roger Masson’s men took advantage of this flow and set up relationships on a give and take basis with the foreign networks. In exchange for information affecting the security of the nation, they organized the border crossings of foreign agents and of documents coming from abroad, and allowed the international intelligence community agents to go about their business with almost total impunity on Swiss soil.The SR was perfectly integrated into the international ‘intelligence community’ established on Swiss soil during World War II. In the field, it ‘shared’ its agents and smugglers with the foreign networks.

This dissertation combines institutional history and social analysis to provide a more nuanced depiction of the Soviet experience in the Great Patriotic War, a portrait which considers the experience of children, the state’s expectations of children, and an exploration of the institution responsible for connecting child and state, the V.I. Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization. It argues that the state’s expectations for children during the Great Patriotic War were issued primarily in order to save the floundering Young Pioneer organization. Though the Pioneers were supposed to lead children in all sorts of tasks and behaviors – a role they had fulfilled since their inception in 1922 – the organization nearly collapsed under the strain of wartime conditions in the early years of the war. In order to resurrect its image and secure its rightful place in the vanguard of children, the Pioneers launched a concerted effort to reassert its leadership. Language, values, and models of heroism were revamped to more accurately reflect the war. The internalization of these standards by children supported the Pioneers’ claim to leadership. Campaigns of action were launched to allow the Pioneers to claim ownership of children’s accomplishments. To guarantee success, the organization drew its ideas from preexisting activities – activities children were already doing in 1941-42, largely on local initiative. What had been conceived of and run as a prescriptive organization for two decades became a descriptive organization, subsuming all appropriate acts into the task of reestablishing the Pioneers at the forefront of Soviet childhood. This suggests that children had far more agency than previously assumed, and their many roles complicate the typical “child-victim” normally associated with the Great Patriotic War and its propaganda. The post-Stalingrad turnaround allowed the Pioneers the opportunity to reassert themselves. Becoming the vanguard, the organization established the foundations for a Pioneer-led heroism storied in Soviet history. Though internal problems continued to dog the Pioneers for years, the foundational story was established in the latter years of the war. Beginning in 1943, the organization began writing itself into the post-war victory narrative, alleging successful leadership among children and ignoring the near-catastrophe they had averted.

American diplomatic historian’s consideration of the role of ideology in the formation of American foreign policy has only recently begun to receive more attention. Traditional focuses on economics and relations among great nation-states have predominated the historical literature. This work examines the powerful effect that ideology, particularly race and anti-communism, played in developing the U.S.’s relationship with a small power nation-state, Australia, between 1933 and 1953. This work is comparative in nature, relying on archival research in both American and Australian archives and examines the attitudes of both elite policymakers as well as common individuals in shaping the alliance between the two states. Theoretically, this work draws upon theories about whiteness that historians such as Theodore Allen and Matthew Frye Jacobson have formulated over the past twenty years. This dissertation concludes that a commitment to an ideology of race and anticommunism played a central role in the development of the American – Australian alliance contrary to standard historical interpretations that have placed economics or pragmatic national security interests at the center of the bond between the two states. The outcomes of this study offer new insights into the nature of alliance building by the U.S. in the twentieth century as well as a how ideology effects coalition warfare.

The current series of anniversaries concerning World War II raise the question of how Poland is coming to terms with its past. <br>The article summarises the ongoing Polish debate about the Warsaw Uprising and the changing perspectives on Polish history in society and political circles. <br>The discussion about Poland’s view on its own past has great influence on recent foreign political relations, e.g. with Germany, the Ukraine, or Russia.