Acknowledgments

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the many individuals and institutions that helped make this project a reality. I am grateful for a Research Fellowship from the Robert J. Dole Archive and Special Collections, a Gerald R. Ford Scholar Award (Dissertation Award) in Honor of Robert M. Teeter from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, and a Silas Palmer Research Fellowship from the Hoover Institution. The University of New Hampshire also helped underwrite this project with a Steelman History Fellowship and Dissertation Year Fellowship. Finally, I thank the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations for a Myrna F. Bernath Fellowship, which enabled me to complete additional research in preparing the book manuscript.

The history department at the University of New Hampshire, where I completed my graduate work, has been and continues to be a source of encouragement and inspiration. My interests changed dramatically throughout graduate school, which meant I had the privilege of taking courses with and seeking the guidance of almost every Americanist in the department. Thank you to all of the outstanding scholars, incredible teachers, and generous mentors I encountered at UNH. Two deserve special mention. Kurk Dorsey ignited my interest in US foreign relations, and Lucy Salyer opened my eyes to the dynamic field of migration studies. Words cannot express all of the ways I am indebted to Kurk and Lucy, but suffice to say that this book would not exist without them.

The dissertation on which this book is based was overseen by an exceptional committee. In addition to Kurk, Lucy, and Jess Lepler at UNH, Mark Atwood Lawrence improved the project with early conversations and defense-stage advice that proved vital to the manuscript and its ongoing development. Finally, it is fitting that Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, whose enthusiasm first helped convince me to undertake this project as a dissertation topic, is now my series editor. I am so thankful that we crossed paths and delighted that Hang has overseen the project through to its completion.

There are others at Cambridge University Press who deserve recognition. Debbie Gershenowitz’s early support for this book brought me to Cambridge, and I remain grateful for her confidence in this project. While Debbie has since moved to another press, it has been a privilege to work with Cecelia Cancellaro and Rachel Blaifeder, who have overseen the final stages with aplomb. I would also like to thank my two external reviewers, who provided incredibly helpful feedback and have been willing to discuss the project with me as it has developed. If only all authors were so lucky.

Before arriving at Virginia Tech, I spent a rewarding year at Boston College as a Visiting Assistant Professor/Core Renewal Fellow. Thank you to Lynn Johnson, Arissa Oh, Sarah Ross, and Conevery Valencius for an especially warm welcome. I am also grateful to Jesse Tumblin, who read most of the book and proved a reliable accountability buddy as we both revised our manuscripts amid teaching new courses.

I also wish to thank my colleagues at Virginia Tech, who have provided a rich and supportive environment for me to complete this work. Jessica Taylor and I began our careers together, and I am very lucky that we have been able to conavigate the academy and life in Blacksburg. I am grateful to the history department for enrollment in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity’s Faculty Support Program, which introduced me to resources and colleagues that have sustained me while finishing this book. Thank you to chairs Mark Barrow and Brett Shadle for their support, to the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences for a Niles Research Grant that provided a course release to permit me to focus on revisions, and to the Provost’s Office for a Mentoring Grant that enabled me to host a book workshop at the 2019 meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. The workshop participants, including Sarah Synder, Ed Miller, and Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, offered insightful and immeasurably helpful feedback that improved the manuscript in many respects. I am also thankful to Bob Brigham, Carl Bon Tempo, and Julia Irwin, who each read the full manuscript and offered thoughtful comments.

It has been my repeated good fortune to encounter scholars who have changed the academy for the better, both through both their scholarship and their determination to make the field a more welcoming, inclusive place. For small and not-so-small acts of kindness, for conversations and gestures that they may have forgotten but which meant a great deal to me, I would like to thank, in addition to those already mentioned, Carol Anderson, Laura Belmonte, Liz Borgwardt, Mary Dudziak, David Engerman, Todd Estes, Petra Goode, Andy Johns, Shannon Kelly, David Kieran, Jana Lipman, Mitch Lerner, Ed Martini, Chris Nichols, Meredith Oyen, Kimber Quinney, Amy Sayward, Karen Dixon Vuic, and Molly Wood.

I have been blessed with a wide support system of friends who have become family. For listening to me talk about this project at length and for their willingness to talk about anything else, I thank Amy Ciszak, Emily Backus, Laura Beaudin, Jordan Coulombe, Jon Hurdelbrink, Sarah Hurdelbrink, Bekah Mense, Jenn Trudeau, and Michael Verney. I must also register my thanks to Emily Ferren, who took care of my son two days each week during the 2019–2020 academic year and has since become an honorary member of our family. Finally, I have been extraordinarily lucky to find kindred spirits within the historical profession. Lizzie Ingleson, Lila Teeters, and Lauren Turek have each improved this work with their questions and comments and have helped sustain the sanity of its author with their friendship. My gratitude knows no bounds.

Last but certainly not least, I wish to register my profound appreciation to my family. My parents, Deb and Scott Wolff and Neil and Janet Ambrose, and siblings, Felecia, Jake, Beth, and Kristy, all hold a special place in my heart and deserve far more thanks than I can possibly express here. I am also blessed to have the most supportive in-laws imaginable; thank you to Jim and MaryBeth Demmer, and J, Pete, and Ben and Jordyn. My greatest appreciation and most profound debts are to my husband Tom, who has been by my side for fifteen years. Tom and our two-and-a-half-year-old son, Owen, have brought joy and meaning into my life in ways I could have never anticipated. And our family will be growing again soon; a few months before this book is to be published, we will be welcoming a baby girl. I can’t wait to see what the next chapter of our story holds.