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30 January 2023
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
Today marks the anniversary of two significant events. In 1862, the first turreted warship Monitor was launched. Then 106 years later, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launched their Tet offensive in South Vietnam. We feature a recap of the latter event thanks to Brent Hunt, compiler of naval history at the Naval History and Heritage Command.
A recent edition of Tuesday Tidings looked back at 2023 to commemorate some of the naval historians who left us as well as a number of naval leaders who had played a role in the making of naval history. For our lead in this edition we salute those emerging scholars who completed and defended their naval history-related dissertations in 2023 and offer a shout-out of support to those aiming to complete their ongoing scholarship in the near future. Keep up the good work!
Naval History Book Reviews provides a bonus this week. Not only do we offer a US debut of Professor Andrew Lambert’s review of the German-published Conceptualizing Maritime & Naval History: Festschrift for Captain Peter M. Swartz courtesy of the British Naval Review, but we also offer a direct link to a pdf copy of this remarkable collection of essays. Also, the books available for review has been updated with some recent arrivals!
Tuesday Tidings is compiled by Dr. David F. Winkler and Jessie Henderson as a benefit for members of the National Maritime Historical Society and friends of naval history.
As always, comments are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.
| ITEMS OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST | |
2 February 2024 - Ramming Speed: Reintroduction of the Ram as a Naval Offensive Weapon
With John V. Quarstein
Noon-1 PM
Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, VA
7 February 2024 - Noon-1 PM, (EST) National Museum of the US Navy, Washington, DC.
Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) discusses diversity and equity with a panel of retired US Navy officers. The conversation will be moderated by NHHC Director’s Action Group Director Kathryn Denise Krepp. Panelists include (left to right): Sinclair M. Harris, Lori E. Chestang, and Gerald A. Collins, Reuben K. Green.
10 February 2024 - Black Americans, the US Navy, and the Civil War
Speaker, Navy Museum Curator Dr. Edward Valentin Jr.
1 PM—2 PM, (EST-in person) Southwest Neighborhood Library, Washington, DC
17–18 February, 2023 – Western Naval History Association Symposium, San Diego, CA
February Naval History magazine look-ahead
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Naval History Dissertations: 2023
Below is a preliminary listing, courtesy of the American Historical Association Directory of Dissertations, of naval history-related dissertations that were successfully defended in 2023 that broaden our understanding of the contributions made by the sea services to society. We salute the newly minted Doctors Callahan, Chardell, DeVries, Frakes, Grasberger, Leese, Mowry, Scarminach, and Seablom. Also posted is a list derived from the same source on dissertations in progress. We look forward to announcing the completion of this ongoing scholarship in the coming years.
Dissertator: Callahan, Shawn
Department: Univ. of Maryland, Coll. Park, Dept. of History
Dissertation Title: “Warfighting: John Boyd’s Theory of Conflict, the Origins of Maneuver Warfare, and the Complex Process of Doctrinal Change in the US Marine Corps, 1975–89”
Advisor: Sumida, Jon
Dissertator: Chardell, Daniel
Department: Harvard Univ., Dept. of History
Dissertation Title: “The Gulf War: An International History, 1989-91”
Advisor: Manela, Erez
Dissertator: DeVries, Amber
Department: Syracuse Univ., Dept. of History
Dissertation Title: “Building a Navy: Masculinity, Recruitment, and Life at Sea in the United States Navy, 1775–1900”
Advisor: Schmeller, Mark
Dissertator: Frakes, Matthew
Department: Univ. of Virginia, Corcoran Dept. of History
Dissertation Title: “Rogue States: The Making of America's Global War on Terror, 1980–94”
Advisor: Hitchcock, William
Read full list>>
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Dissertations in Progress:
Dissertator: Albin, Cameron
Department: Univ. of North Texas, Dept. of History
Dissertation Title: “Honorable and Bloody Men: The Quasi War with France and the Birth of American Navy Professionalism”
Advisor: Chet, Guy
Dissertator: Antalvali, Zekeriya Efe
Department: Univ. of Notre Dame, Dept. of History
Dissertation Title: “The Unruly Sea: Rulers, Rebels and the Sociopolitical Transformation of the Eastern Mediterranean, 1239–1511”
Advisor: Beihammer, Alexander
Dissertator: Arrizabalaga, Edward
Department: Auburn Univ., Dept. of History
Dissertation Title: “Vice Admiral Alfred Wilkinson Johnson: A Life of Achievement”
Advisor: Trimble, William
Dissertator: Ayhens-Madon, Monica
Department: Univ. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Dept. of History
Dissertation Title: “Bodies of Empire: Naval Medical Encounters in the 18th-Century Caribbean”
Advisor: Beeler, John
Read full list>>
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Today Marks Tet Offensive Anniversary | |
Sailors from Naval Forces Vietnam stand watch in Saigon in the aftermath of the enemy-led Tet Offensive, February 1968. Photo by PH1 G.D. Olson. Naval Historical Center Photographic Branch collection. | |
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Vietnam’s Tet Offensive -- Courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command
In the early hours of Jan. 30–31, 1968, during Vietnam’s Lunar New Year celebrations (Tet), the Tet Offensive began when about 85,000 North Vietnamese government troops and Viet Cong guerillas simultaneously attacked major cities, military installations, and scores of towns and villages throughout South Vietnam—an estimated more than 150 South Vietnamese targets in total. It was arguably the turning point of the Vietnam War, at least in terms of public sentiment. The massive assault was an attempt to incite unrest among the South Vietnamese populace and break the war’s prolonged stalemate. The enemy-led offensive ultimately was a crushing tactical defeat for the North Vietnamese, and especially for the Viet Cong, with 45,000–58,000 enemy killed in action (including losses during the “mini-Tets” that occurred over the next eight months). To add to the defeat, the North Vietnamese abandoned the guerilla warfare approach, which was highly successful to that point and had caused American commanders consistent frustrations. Nevertheless, the media heavily publicized the offensive and its effects, dealing a psychological blow to American public and political support for the war. Ultimately, it soured the will of the United States to sustain the war.
In the months preceding the Tet Offensive, the North Vietnamese army (NVA) engaged in extensive intelligence deception operations that were designed to focus attention to the border areas of the country and away from coastal cities. In retrospect, NVA operations at Con Tien and Dak To in the central highlands made little military sense and cost the NVA heavily, but they succeeded in the deception objective. Although US commanders viewed the attacks on the Khe Sanh combat base as an attempt by North Vietnam to replicate its unprecedented victory against the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the NVA’s real objective was to bog down American and South Vietnamese forces, diverting attention away from preparations for the Tet Offensive. The North Vietnamese government also announced that it would honor a truce between Jan. 27 and Feb. 3 in conjunction with Tet, something that they actually had no intention of upholding. Allied forces accepted the stand-down, and a large number of military troops (mostly South Vietnamese) were on leave when the offensive commenced. Although several premature Viet Cong attacks occurred on Jan. 29, the day before Tet began, allied forces were unable to recall troops in a timely matter and were ill prepared.
Although the North Vietnamese had the element of surprise and there were few South Vietnamese troops initially available, the enemy attacks were beaten back in just a matter of days, with the exception of the old Vietnamese imperial capital of Hue, where two NVA battalions succeeded in occupying the citadel. It wasn’t until Feb. 25, when the South Vietnamese army and US Marines recaptured Hue at the cost of 216 US Marines killed and 1,600 wounded.
Read full article>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | |
 |  | ...Finally, Michael Carl Haas’s re-examination of Cold War thinking builds on a key paper by Peter Swartz to highlight how the flawed assumption that there would be a third or fourth “Battle of Atlantic” compromised US and NATO planning in the stand-off with the Soviet Union. Anxious to justify both budget and capabilities after the 1947 defence amalgamation, without challenging the Army or the Air Force, which dominated the new Defense structures, the Navy made the weak Soviet fleet of the 1940s and 1950s into a strategic threat, one that could attack the Atlantic communications required to reinforce and re-supply of American armies in Europe. This approach led to massively inflated Soviet submarine production figures, along with the capabilities of the boats. Intelligence breakthroughs, human and technical, ended that delusion in the early 1970s, revealing the emerging SSBN ‘bastion’ strategy. The deep history of Russian and Soviet naval activity against peer competitors has been wholly and understandably defensive. The force mix has always stressed coast and local defence, with a limited long-range capacity for distraction. While the USN of the 1940s to the 1970s was perfectly capable of defeating the Soviet fleet, it sacrificed the opportunity to achieve deterrent effect by challenging the Soviet defences from the sea. Haas’s bullet point conclusions on pp.216-217 ought to be placed before every naval leader in the western world. As he observes “Only historical insight, sound methodology, good training, and ingrained habit of active self-reflection, and the healthy scepticism of like-minded peers can prevent such outcomes from recurring in the future or, at any rate, mitigate their impact.”
Jeremy Stöhs’s essay reinforces the point. “A return to close study of Russia’s history and strategic culture –largely ignored in the two previous decades, is of paramount importance” (p.339). Peter Swartz’s unclassified 2013 Centre for Naval Analyses 2013 paper is the obvious source for these insights. Ever since Russia reached the sea it has been vulnerable to strategic and economic pressure imposed in the enclosed Baltic and Black Seas, and challenging Arctic Ocean. The invasion of Ukraine post-dated this book, altering the calculus. NATO expansion, real and forthcoming, means Russia cannot control the Baltic, its main export route, and faces significant threats to key industrial, strategic, and political assets. Russian and Soviet leaders built navies and shorebased defences to resist the threat, not to seek control of the open ocean. The resulting strategic asymmetry enabled Britain, a relatively weak maritime power to coerce, and when necessary defeat, Russia for 200 years. In 1890 Mahan examined British success in a sequence of wars against France, to shape the strategic culture of the United States Navy and enhance its role in national strategy. Today he would focus on how Britain contained, and when necessary defeated, aggressive, expansionist Russian Empires between 1702 and 1919. It is the suggestive quality of this thought-provoking collection that make it a fitting festschrift for Peter Swartz, an outstanding naval intellectual who has made a critical difference to the mental processes of his own, and other navies across five decades.
Read full review>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
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Dr. David A. Smith’s talk on Admiral of the Navy George Dewey at last Wednesday’s Naval Order Heritage Night.
Watch here>>
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NAVAL HISTORY CALLS FOR PAPERS | |
CONTEST SUBMISSION DEADLINE | |
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Charles Dana Gibson Award
For the best article on North American maritime history published in a peer-reviewed journal in
2023
Honorarium: $1,000
Closing date for entries/nominations: 1 March 2024
Send copy and complete citation for the article to: NASOHGibsonaward@gmail.com
Selection: Articles will be evaluated by a three-person committee of NASOH members
Announcement of award recipient: TBD.
***The Recipient must be present at the NASOH conference to receive the award.****
NASOH presents the Charles Dana Gibson Award annually to the author of the most significant
article on any aspect of North American maritime history published in a refereed journal during
the previous year.
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UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | |
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17–18 February 2024: Western Naval History Association Symposium, San Diego, CA.
29 February–1 March 2024: Women’s History Symposium, National World War II Museum, New Orleans
18–21 April 2024: Society For Military History Annual Conference Arlington, VA
24–25 April 2024: Council of American Maritime Museums, Constitution Museum, Boston, MA
20–23 June 2024: Joint NASOH/CNRS Conference, St. Catherines, Ontario
24–28 September 2025: 12th Maritime Heritage Conference, Buffalo, NY
| PREBLE HALL NAVAL HISTORY PODCAST | |
A naval history podcast from Preble Hall – the United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. Preble Hall will interview historians, practitioners, military personnel, and other experts on a variety of naval history topics from ancient history to more current events.
Click here for the latest episode: 221: Interview with Acting SECNAV Thomas Modly, Part 2>>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| DRACHINIFEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | |
Welcome to Navy History Matters, Naval History and Heritage Command’s biweekly compilation of articles, commentaries, and blogs related to history and heritage. Every other week, they gather the top-interest items from a variety of media and social media sources that link to related content at NHHC’s website, your authoritative source for Navy history.
Click here for most recent article>>
| INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NAVAL HISTORY | |
The International Journal of Naval History (IJNH) provides a preeminent forum for works of naval history, researched and written to demonstrable academic standards, with the goal of stimulating and promoting research into naval history and fostering communication among naval historians at an international level. IJNH welcomes any scholarly historical analysis, focused on any period or geographic region, that explores naval power in its national or cultural context. The journal is independent of any institution and operates under the direction of an international editorial board that represents various genres of naval history.
Click here to read the February 2023 edition and archived issues on the IJNH website >>
| SUPPORTING US NAVAL HISTORY & HERITAGE | |
With the 250th anniversary of the US Navy on the horizon, NMHS seeks your support as we plan to honor those who have provided for our maritime security.
Click here to donate today >>
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