Ronald H. Spector
Ronald H. Spector
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Website : Ronald H. Spector at GWU

Associated with The Society for Military History, part of Encyclopaedia Britannica's Publishing Partner Program.
BIOGRAPHY

Ronald H. Spector is Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins and his MA and Ph.D. from Yale.

He has served in various government positions and on active duty in the Marine Corps from 1967-69 and 1983-84, and was the first civilian to become Director of Naval History and the head of the Naval Historical Center. He has served on the faculties of LSU, Alabama, and Princeton and has been a senior Fulbright lecturer in India and Israel. In 1995-96 he was Distinguished Visiting Professor of Strategy at the National War College and was the Distinguished Guest Professor at Keio University, Tokyo in 2000.

At the Elliott School, he offers undergraduate and graduate courses on US-East Asia Relations, World War II, and the Vietnam War as well as a graduate seminar on Naval history and one on strategy.

His publications include In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia (2007, paperback 2008); Professors of War: The Naval War College and the Development of the Naval Profession (2005); At War At Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century (2002); After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam (1994); and Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan (1985). At War At Sea received the Distinguished Book Award of the Society for Military History, and Eagle Against the Sun won the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Prize for Naval History. He is currently working on a study of the immediate aftermath of World War II in China and Southeast Asia.

Primary Contributions (2)
Vietnam War
Vietnam War, (1954–75), a protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. Called the “American War” in Vietnam (or, in full, the “War…
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Publications (3)
Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941-1960 (United States Army in Vietnam)
Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941-1960 (United States Army in Vietnam) (February 2005)
By Ronald H. Spector
The present volume describes the activities of the U.S. Army in Vietnam during World War II, military advice and assistance to the French government during the immediate postwar years, and the advisory program that developed after the Geneva Agreements of 1954. Its scope ranges from high-level policy decisions to low-echelon advisory operations in the field, presented against a background of relevant military and political developments. The author enjoyed access to the official records of the...
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At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century
At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century (May 2001)
By Ronald H. Spector

A former director of naval history draws on more than a hundred diaries, memoirs, letter, interviews, and public records to provide an account of the most important naval conflicts of the twentieth century, from the 1905 Battle of Tsushima to the sophisticated missile engagements off the Falklands and the Persian Gulf. 25,000 first printing.

Eagle Against the Sun
Eagle Against the Sun (1985)
By Ronald H Spector