Let the Dogs Bark: The Psychological War in Vietnam, 1960-1968 (open access)

Let the Dogs Bark: The Psychological War in Vietnam, 1960-1968

Between 1960 and 1968 the United States conducted intensive psychological operations (PSYOP) in Vietnam. To date, no comprehensive study of the psychological war there has been conducted. This dissertation fills that void, describing the development of American PSYOP forces and their employment in Vietnam. By looking at the complex interplay of American, North Vietnamese, National Liberation Front (NLF) and South Vietnamese propaganda programs, a deeper understanding of these activities and the larger war emerges. The time period covered is important because it comprises the initial introduction of American PSYOP advisory forces and the transition to active participation in the war. It also allows enough time to determine the long-term effects of both the North Vietnamese/NLF and American/South Vietnamese programs. Ending with the 1968 Tet Offensive is fitting because it marks both a major change in the war and the establishment of the 4th Psychological Operations Group to manage the American PSYOP effort. This dissertation challenges the argument that the Northern/Viet Cong program was much more effective that the opposing one. Contrary to common perceptions, the North Vietnamese propaganda increasingly fell on deaf ears in the south by 1968. This study also provides support for understanding the Tet Offensive as a …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Roberts, Mervyn Edwin, III
System: The UNT Digital Library
Prison Productions: Textiles and Other Military Supplies from State Penitentiaries in the Trans-Mississippi Theater during the American Civil War (open access)

Prison Productions: Textiles and Other Military Supplies from State Penitentiaries in the Trans-Mississippi Theater during the American Civil War

This thesis examines the state penitentiaries of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas that became sources of wartime supplies during the Civil War. A shortage of industry in the southwest forced the Confederacy to use all manufactories efficiently. Penitentiary workshops and textile mills supplied a variety of cloth, wood, and iron products, but have received minimal attention in studies of logistics. Penitentiary textile mills became the largest domestic supplier of cloth to Confederate quartermasters, aid societies, citizens, slaves, and indigent families. This study examines how penitentiary workshops converted to wartime production and determines their contribution to the Confederate war effort. The identification of those who produced, purchased, distributed, and used penitentiary goods will enhance our knowledge of overall Confederate supply.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Derbes, Brett J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Rise and Fall of the Texas Radicals, 1867-1883 (open access)

The Rise and Fall of the Texas Radicals, 1867-1883

The purpose of this monograph is to study the early Texas Republican party within the framework of well-known political party functions, i.e., to provide political leadership, recruit governmental personnel, generate public policy, and propagate ideology.
Date: May 1972
Creator: Baggett, James Alex
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Highsmith Men, Texas Rangers (open access)

The Highsmith Men, Texas Rangers

The Highsmith Men is a general historical narrative of four prominent men who happened to be Texas Rangers. The story begins in Texas in 1830 and traces the lives of Samuel Highsmith, his nephew, Benjamin Franklin Highsmith, and Samuels's sons, Malcijah and Henry Albert Highsmith, who was the last of the four to pass away, in 1930. During this century the four Highsmiths participated in nearly every landmark event significant to the history of Texas. The Highsmith men also participated in numerous other engagements as well. Within this framework the intent of The Highsmith Men is to scrutinize the contemporary scholarly conceptions of the early Texas Rangers as an institution by following the lives of these four men, who can largely be considered common folk settlers. This thesis takes a bottom up approach to the history of Texas, which already maintains innumerable accounts of the sometimes true and, sometimes not, larger than life figures that Texas boasts. For students pursuing studies in the Texas, the American West, the Mexican American War, or Civil War history, this regional history may be of some use. The early Texas Rangers were generally referred to as "Minute Men" or "Volunteer Militia" until 1874. In …
Date: December 2012
Creator: Edwards, Cody
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Old Alcalde: Oran Milo Roberts, Texas's Forgotten Fire-Eater (open access)

The Old Alcalde: Oran Milo Roberts, Texas's Forgotten Fire-Eater

Oran Milo Roberts was at the center of every important event in Texas between 1857 and 1883. He served on the state supreme court on three separate occasions, twice as chief justice. As president of the 1861 Secession Convention he was instrumental in leading Texas out of the Union. He then raised and commanded an infantry regiment in the Confederate Army. After the Civil War, Roberts was a delegate to the 1866 Constitutional Convention and was elected by the state legislature to the United States Senate, though Republicans in Congress refused to seat him. He served two terms as governor from 1879 to 1883. Despite being a major figure in Texas history, there are no published biographies of Roberts. This dissertation seeks to examine Roberts's place in Texas history and analyze the factors that drove him to seek power. It will also explore the major events in which he participated and determine his historical legacy to the state.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Yancey, William C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dichotomy in American Western Mythology (open access)

Dichotomy in American Western Mythology

The fundamental dichotomy between savage and civilized man is examined within the archetypal Western myth of American culture. The roots of the dichotomy are explored through images produced between 1888 and 1909 by artists Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. Four John Ford films are then used as a basis for the "dichotomous archetype" approach to understanding Western myth in film. Next, twenty-nine "historical" and "contemporary" Western movies are discussed chronologically, from The Virginian (1929) to Dances with Wolves (1990), in terms of the savage/civilized schema as it is personified by the roles of archetypal characters. The conclusion proposes a potential resolution of the savage/civilized conflict through an ecumenical mythology that recognizes a universal reverence for nature.
Date: May 1991
Creator: Robinson, Scott E. (Scott Elmon), 1961-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Collective Security and Coalition: British Grand Strategy, 1783-1797 (open access)

Collective Security and Coalition: British Grand Strategy, 1783-1797

On 1 February 1793, the National Convention of Revolutionary France declared war on Great Britain and the Netherlands, expanding the list of France's enemies in the War of the First Coalition. Although British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger had predicted fifteen years of peace one year earlier, the French declaration of war initiated nearly a quarter century of war between Britain and France with only a brief respite during the Peace of Amiens. Britain entered the war amid both a nadir in British diplomacy and internal political divisions over the direction of British foreign policy. After becoming prime minister in 1783 in the aftermath of the War of American Independence, Pitt pursued financial and naval reform to recover British strength and cautious interventionism to end Britain's diplomatic isolation in Europe. He hoped to create a collective security system based on the principles of the territorial status quo, trade agreements, neutral rights, and resolution of diplomatic disputes through mediation - armed mediation if necessary. While his domestic measures largely met with success, Pitt's foreign policy suffered from a paucity of like-minded allies, contradictions between traditional hostility to France and emergent opposition to Russian expansion, Britain's limited ability to project power …
Date: May 2017
Creator: Jarrett, Nathaniel
System: The UNT Digital Library
Military Campaigns of the Texas Revolution (open access)

Military Campaigns of the Texas Revolution

This thesis contains information pertaining to the events that led up to the Texas Revolution as well as the military campaigns and battles that ultimately led up to the secession with Mexico.
Date: August 1951
Creator: Webb, Rufus Mac
System: The UNT Digital Library
Limitations of Hungarian National Power in World War Two (open access)

Limitations of Hungarian National Power in World War Two

This study covers a period of a quarter of a century of Hungarian history, focusing on questions that affected the country's World War Two participation. It invokes the aid of value forming principles in order to reach conclusions. Its guiding principles relate to political theory affecting international relations.
Date: August 1969
Creator: Novak, Emilian E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Agonizing Evolution: a History of the Texas National Guard, 1900-1945 (open access)

An Agonizing Evolution: a History of the Texas National Guard, 1900-1945

The National Guard in America began in the Revolutionary War. The Texas units resulted from the earlier concept and emerged in 1835 to resist Mexican oppression. Following achievement of statehood, Texas militiamen served in the Mexican War, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War. As the twentieth century began, Texans had a long history of service in reserve military organizations in spite of a prevailing attitude of contempt for citizen soldiers held by influential regular army officials.
Date: May 1979
Creator: Milner, Elmer Ray
System: The UNT Digital Library
Computer Simulation Placements in a Unit of Instruction (open access)

Computer Simulation Placements in a Unit of Instruction

Educators considering implementing a computer simulation must decide on the optimum placement of the simulation in the unit of instruction to maximize student learning. This study examined student achievement using two different placements for the computer simulation, The Civil War, in a unit of instruction of 8th grade American History students in a suburban middle school.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Naumann, Steve E. (Steve Eugene)
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Victory is Our Only Road to Peace": Texas, Wartime Morale, and Confederate Nationalism, 1860-1865 (open access)

"Victory is Our Only Road to Peace": Texas, Wartime Morale, and Confederate Nationalism, 1860-1865

This thesis explores the impact of home front and battlefield morale on Texas's civilian and military population during the Civil War. It addresses the creation, maintenance, and eventual surrender of Confederate nationalism and identity among Texans from five different counties: Colorado, Dallas, Galveston, Harrison, and Travis. The war divided Texans into three distinct groups: civilians on the home front, soldiers serving in theaters outside of the state, and soldiers serving within Texas's borders. Different environments, experiences, and morale affected the manner in which civilians and soldiers identified with the Confederate war effort. This study relies on contemporary letters, diaries, newspaper reports, and government records to evaluate how morale influenced national dedication and loyalty to the Confederacy among various segments of Texas's population.
Date: May 2008
Creator: Lang, Andrew F.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Béla Bartók's Use of Percussion Instruments (open access)

Béla Bartók's Use of Percussion Instruments

The first chapter outlines the history of percussion instruments used by Béla Bartók, The second chapter deals with the use of percussion by various composers from Bach's time up to the period of Bartók. Chapter three outlines how Bartók uses percussion instruments.
Date: August 1961
Creator: Stephenson, Duke Hopkins
System: The UNT Digital Library
Alexander Kerensky and the Kornilov Affair (open access)

Alexander Kerensky and the Kornilov Affair

This thesis describes the Kornilov Affair and the people involved, especially Alexander Kerensky.
Date: August 1965
Creator: Tompkins, Rosemary Colborn
System: The UNT Digital Library
Myths, Hierophanies, and Sacraments in William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha Fiction (open access)

Myths, Hierophanies, and Sacraments in William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha Fiction

Critical reactions to the religious experiences contained in William Faulkner's fiction have tended to fall within the context of traditional Christian belief systems. In most instances, the characters' beliefs have been judged by the tenets of belief systems or religions that are not necessarily those on which the characters base their lives. There has been no effort to understand the characters' spirituality as the basis of an independent religious belief system. Mircea Eliade's methods and models in the study of comparative religion, in particular his explanation of the interaction of the sacred and the profane during a hierophany (the manifestation of the sacred), can be applied to the belief systems of Faulkner's characters to reveal the theologies of the characters' religions, the nature of the belief systems on which they base their lives. Identification of those stories associated with hierophanies in Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha fiction enables the isolation and analysis of the sacred stories and sacraments of Yoknapatawpha County's civil religion. The storytellings examined appear in Flags in the Dust, "A Justice," and Absalom, Absalom!. The storytellers and the audiences are all a part of the Yoknapatawpha community, and the stories are drawn from a common history. The sacralization and use …
Date: May 1995
Creator: Zimmermann, David H. (David Howard)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Rio Grande Expedition, 1863-1865 (open access)

The Rio Grande Expedition, 1863-1865

In October 1863 the United States Army's Rio Grande Expedition left New Orleans, bound for the Texas coast. Reacting to the recent French occupation of Mexico, President Abraham Lincoln believed that the presence of U.S. troops in Texas would dissuade the French from intervening in the American Civil War. The first major objective of this campaign was Brownsville, Texas, a port city on the lower Rio Grande. Its capture would not only serve as a warning to the French in Mexico; it would also disrupt a lucrative Confederate cotton trade across the border. The expedition had a mixed record of achievement. It succeeded in disrupting the cotton trade, but not stopping it. Federal forces installed a military governor, Andrew J. Hamilton, in Brownsville, but his authority extended only to the occupied part of Texas, a strip of land along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The campaign also created considerable fear among Confederate soldiers and civilians that the ravages of civil war had now come to the Lone Star State. Although short-lived, the panic generated by the Rio Grande Expedition left an indelible mark on the memories of Texans who lived through the campaign. The expedition achieved its greatest …
Date: May 2001
Creator: Townsend, Stephen A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Texas Confederate Home for Men, 1884-1970 (open access)

The Texas Confederate Home for Men, 1884-1970

Founded in 1886 by a local veteran’s organization, the Texas Confederate Home for Men served thousands of veterans throughout its tenure. State-run beginning in 1891, the facility became the center of controversy multiple times, with allegations of mistreatment of residents, misappropriation of funds, and unsanitary conditions in the home. Despite these problems, for several decades the home effectively provided large numbers of needy veterans with a place where they could live out their remaining years. The home was finally closed by the state in 1965, and the buildings were demolished in 1970. The facility’s success helped to inspire Texas to introduce a veteran pension system, and brought forth a new era in the state’s willingness to take care of veterans once their wars were over.
Date: August 2011
Creator: Kirchenbauer, Amy Sue
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Pennsylvania Rifle: the Evolution of its Tactical Employment in the American Revolution (open access)

The Pennsylvania Rifle: the Evolution of its Tactical Employment in the American Revolution

There are two opinions as to the effectiveness of the Pennsylvania Rifle during the Revolutionary War. On one hand it is alleged that the rifle was, at best, not particularly useful, and that its disadvantages outweighed its advantages. In contradiction to this we find that the British military appealed to London for rifles, and that the British government specified that there be a definite number of riflemen among the mercenaries they hired. Furthermore, according to Fortescue, the British military were forced to change their tactics, at least in part, because of the rifle. It is the purpose of this thesis to resolve this conflict by determining which of the two positions, if either ,is correct, or to determine the extent to which they may both be correct.
Date: August 1964
Creator: Johanns, Walter Alfred
System: The UNT Digital Library
Companion to the Gods, Friend to the Empire: the Experiences and Education of the Emperor Julian and How It Influenced His Reign 361-363 AD (open access)

Companion to the Gods, Friend to the Empire: the Experiences and Education of the Emperor Julian and How It Influenced His Reign 361-363 AD

This thesis explores the life and reign of Julian the Apostate the man who ruled over the Roman Empire from A.D. 361-363. The study of Julian the Apostate’s reign has historically been eclipsed due to his clash with Christianity. After the murder of his family in 337 by his Christian cousin Constantius, Julian was sent into exile. These emotional experiences would impact his view of the Christian religion for the remainder of his life. Julian did have conflict with the Christians but his main goal in the end was the revival of ancient paganism and the restoration of the Empire back to her glory. The purpose of this study is to trace the education and experiences that Julian had undergone and the effects they it had on his reign. Julian was able to have both a Christian and pagan education that would have a lifelong influence on his reign. Julian’s career was a short but significant one. Julian restored the cities of the empire and made beneficial reforms to the legal, educational, political and religious institutions throughout the Empire. The pagan historians praised him for his public services to the empire while the Christians have focused on his apostasy and …
Date: August 2014
Creator: Lilly, Marshall
System: The UNT Digital Library
Neuropsychological Functioning in Active Duty Soldiers with Physical and/or Psychological Trauma (open access)

Neuropsychological Functioning in Active Duty Soldiers with Physical and/or Psychological Trauma

This quasi-experimental study investigates neuropsychological functioning differences between 63 active duty soldiers who were placed into three groups (MTBI, PTSD, control) to provide better information for differentiating PTSD and MTBI. The ANAM and MicroCog were utilized to measure psychomotor speed, memory, and attention. Participants with PTSD performed worse on most measures of psychomotor speed and attention, and endorsed more symptoms of depression and anxiety when compared to MTBI and control participants. Further, attention appears to be the best cognitive domain for differentiating PTSD from MTBI, whereas memory variables did not differentiate these groups. Clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed.
Date: December 2010
Creator: Klein, Robert S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Women's Suffrage in Oklahoma (open access)

Women's Suffrage in Oklahoma

This study considers the nature of life and society in the Indian and Oklahoma Territories and the factors contributing to the narrow defeat of the women's suffrage proposal in the Constitutional Convention.
Date: December 1970
Creator: Brown, Nettie Terry
System: The UNT Digital Library
Gritos de la Frontera:  Giving Voice to Tejano Contributions in the Formation of the Republic of Texas, 1700-1850 (open access)

Gritos de la Frontera: Giving Voice to Tejano Contributions in the Formation of the Republic of Texas, 1700-1850

The intent of this thesis is to convey the distinctiveness and the contributions of Tejano culture in Texas. It focuses on the traditions of governance employed by Tejanos as well as their contributions to industry, economy and defense that Texas benefited from and still enjoys today. .given by Spain and México to Tejanos in establishing their settlements affected the development of a distinct Tejano culture. Furthermore, this study will also examine Anglo-Tejano interaction and Anglo American intentions toward Texas. It will also outline how Anglo Americans made determine efforts to wrest Texas away from Spain and México. Finally, the thesis examines Tejano cultural perseverance whose indelible imprint still resonates today.
Date: December 2002
Creator: Guzmán, Roberto
System: The UNT Digital Library
Masters No More: Abolition and Texas Planters, 1860-1890 (open access)

Masters No More: Abolition and Texas Planters, 1860-1890

This dissertation is a study of the effects of the abolition of slavery on the economic and political elite of six Texas counties between 1860 and 1890. It focuses on Austin, Brazoria, Colorado, Fort Bend, Matagorda, and Wharton Counties. These areas contain the overwhelming majority of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred," the original American settlers of Texas. In addition to being the oldest settled region, these counties contained many of the wealthiest slaveholders within the state. This section of the state, along with the northeast along the Louisiana border, includes the highest concentration of Texas' antebellum plantations. This study asks two central questions. First, what were the effects of abolition on the fortunes of the planter class within these six counties? Did a new elite emerge as a result of the end of slavery, or, despite the liquidation of a substantial portion of their estates, did members of the former planter class sustain their economic dominance over the counties? Second, what were abolition's effects on the counties' prewar political elite, defined as the county judge? Who were in power before the war and who were in power after it? Did abolition contribute to a new kind of politician?
Date: December 2010
Creator: Ivan, Adrien D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The History of Cameron County, Texas (open access)

The History of Cameron County, Texas

The history of Cameron County from 1519, when Pineda unquestionably traversed the area near the present city of Port Isabel, to 1950 gives this sector a unique position among the 254 counties of Texas when a study is made of the historical background of the state.
Date: August 1950
Creator: Hildebrand, Walter W.
System: The UNT Digital Library