Ronald B. Frankum, Jr.

Millersville University of Pennsylvania

Department of History

McComsey Hall, Room 321

Millersville, PA  17551

(717) 872-3745

ronald.frankum@millersville.edu

 

 

Education

 

Ph.D., History, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. 1997

Dissertation:    Silent Partners:  Australia And The United States In Southeast Asia, 1954-1968

 

Major Field:     Modern United States History

Minor Fields:    Early United States History

Modern British History

Modern French History

 

Master of Arts, History, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1990

Bachelor of Arts, History, Political Philosophy, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 1988

 

 

Teaching Experience

 

Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Millersville, Pennsylvania

            EDFN 111:  BSE Social Studies Seminar:  Content Connections

HIST 105:  Craft of History

HIST 106:  Contours of United States History

HIST 276:  American Foreign Relations, 1890 to the Present

HIST 360:  Second World War

HIST 406:  Senior Seminar

HIST 498:  Departmental Honors Thesis (Research)

HIST 499:  Departmental Honors Thesis (Writing)

HIST 499:  Independent Studies (Varies)

HIST 470:  The Vietnam War

HIST 510:  Topics in History:  20th Century American Foreign Relations

HIST 610:  20th Century American Wars and Diplomacy

HIST 612:  Seminar:  The Vietnam War

 

Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

HONS 3301-070:  American Experience in Vietnam, 1999-2003

 

Vietnam, Library and Archival Seminars

            Vietnam National University -Hanoi (20 hours), July 30 - August 4, 1999

Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City (15 hours), December 1-3, 1999

Can Tho University (15 hours), December 11-13, 1999

 

Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

HIS 324:  United States Foreign Relations, 1914 To The Present, summer 1996

HIS 490:  Independent Study, summer 1996

 

 

 

Publications

 

Book

Operation Passage to Freedom:  The United States  in Vietnam, 1954-1955 Texas Tech University Press (July 2007)

 

Like Rolling Thunder:  The Air War during the Vietnam War.   Rowman and Littlefield (February 2005)

 

The Vietnam War for Dummies.  [with Stephen Maxner] Wiley (October 2002)

 

Silent Partners:  The United States and Australia in Vietnam.  Edwin Mellen Press, (March 2001)

 

Articles/Encyclopedia Entries

“Australia” and “New Zealand” entries in the Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social, and Military History.  Spencer Tucker, Editor (2006)

 

"Walking A Tightrope:  An Examination Of United States-Australian Foreign Relations In West New Guinea, 1954-1962," Melbourne Historical Journal, August 1998

 

"Edward Richard Sprigg," American National Biography.  Oxford University Press, (1997)

 

"Ben Hardin," American National Biography.  Oxford University Press, (1997)

 

26 Entries in John Kleber, Ed. Kentucky Bicentennial Encyclopedia.  The University Press of Kentucky, 1992.   Entries on Subjects Dealing From Kentucky's Military, Political, and Scientific Notables.

 

Chapters in Books

“‘Vietnam during the Rule of Ngo Dinh Diem, 1954-63” The War That Nevers Ends:  New Perspectives on the Vietnam War.  Edited by David L. Anderson and John Ernst.  Lexington, Kentucky:  University of Kentucky (2007).

 

“’Swatting Flies with a Sledgehammer’:  The Air War” in Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land:  The Vietnam War Revisited.  Andrew Wiest, Editor.  Oxford, England:  Osprey Press (2006).

 

Book Review

Graham A. Cosmas, MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Escalation, 1962-1967.  United States Army in Vietnam Series (Washington, D.C.:  Center of Military History Institute, 2006).  Review in The Public Historian (forthcoming 2007)

 

Seth Jacobs, America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam:  Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia (Durham:  Duke University Press, 2004).  Review in the Journal of Church and State 47:3 (Summer 2005)

 

Jeff Doyle, Jeffrey Grey, and Peter Pierce.  Australia’s Vietnam War.  Texas A&M Press, 2002.  Review in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 100:3 (Summer 2002)

 

Carland, John M.  Stemming the Tide, May 1965 to October 1966.  Washington, D.C.:  Center of Military History, 2000.  Review in Vietnam Magazine (February 2002)

 

Miller, John Grider, The Co-Vans:  U.S. Marine Advisors in Vietnam.  Annapolis, MD:  Naval Institute Press, 2000.  Review in Vietnam Magazine (February 2002)

 

Stingray.  Edited by Bruce H. Norton.  New York:  Ballatine Books, 2000.  Review in Vietnam Magazine (June 2001)

 

The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War:  A Political, Social, and Military History.  Edited by Spencer C. Tucker.  New York:  Oxford, 2000.  Review in The Journal of Military History 65:1 (January 2001)

 

Presentations

 

Conferences

5th Triennial Vietnam Center Symposium, March 17-March 19, “To Move a Nation:  The United States and the Vietnamese Refugee Crisis, 1954-1955”

 

SHAFR 2004 Annual Meeting, June 24-27, 2004, “A Heart of Gold:  Operation Passage to Freedom, 1954-1955”

 

Millersville University Presidential Inaugural Symposium Sessions, April 2, 2004, “Heart of Gold:  Vietnam and Operation Passage to Freedom, 1954-1955”

 

4th Triennial Vietnam Center Symposium, April 13-April 15, 2002, “A Passage to Freedom:  The 1954 Evacuation of Vietnamese and French from Hanoi and Haiphong”

 

The 2nd International Convention of Asian Scholars, "The Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University" Berlin, Germany, August 10, 2001

 

The Vietnam War Symposium, "Who Fought in Vietnam?  The Allied Effort, 1962-1972," University of Houston, November 13, 1999

 

3rd Triennial Vietnam Center Symposium, April 15-April 17, 1999 "The Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University."

 

3rd Triennial Vietnam Center Symposium, April 15-April 17, 1999 "Another Vietnam War: Australia and the United States in Southeast Asia, 1963-65."

 

Popular Culture Conference, 31 March-3 April 1998, "Third Countries in a Secondary Role:  American Allies in Vietnam"

 

New England Historical Association, 18 October 1997, "Silent Partners:  Australia And The United States In Southeast Asia, 1954-1968"

 

Other Speaking Engagements

Naval Support Activity-Philadelphia Compound Annual Veterans Day Ceremony, November 9, 2004 (Keynote Speaker)

 

Department of the Army Special Photographic Office Association, Washington, D.C., October 17, 2002 (Program Speaker)

 

7th Squadron/17th Regiment Air Cavalry Association, St. Louis, MO, September 14, 2002 (Dinner Speaker)

 

U.S.S. Frank E. Evans Association Reunion, St. Louis, MO, September 6, 2002 (Program Speaker)

 

Army Security Agency Association Reunion, New Orleans, LA, August 29, 2002 (Program Speaker)

 

7th Battalion/15th Field Artillery Regiment Reunion, Ft. Sill, OK, June 30, 2001 (Program Speaker)

 

Questers Dinner, Lubbock, TX, January 19, 2001(Dinner Speaker)

 

Army Transportation Vietnam Association Reunion, Las Vegas, NY, August 5, 2000 (Dinner Speaker)

 

B Troop 2/17th Cavalry Association, Fort Rucker, AL September 30, 2000 (Program Speaker)

 

Vietnam Combat Tracker Team/Dog Handlers Reunion, New Orleans, LA, June 17, 2000 (Program Speaker)

 

9th Engineering Battalion Reunion, Washington, D.C., June 10, 2000 (Program Speaker)

 

9th Medical Laboratory Reunion, Galveston, Texas, May 12, 2000, "The Future of the Vietnam Veteran in United States History." (Program Speaker)

 

B Troop, 2nd Squadron, 17th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division Reunion, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 2, 1999, "Why Preserve the Past?  Vietnam Veterans and the Future. (Dinner Speaker)

 

Phi Alpha Theta Luncheon, 3 May 1995, "Not Just An American War:  Australians In The Vietnam War" (Luncheon Speaker)

 

Professional Experience

 

Millersville University, Millersville, Pennsylvania

Assistant Professor, Department of History, August 2003-August 2007

Associate Professor, Department of History, August 2007 -

 

Serve as the historian for American Foreign Relations and American Military History.

 

Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

Adjunct Professor, Department of History, September 2000-August 2003

Associate Director, The Vietnam Center, March 1999-August 2003

Archivist, The Vietnam Archive, October 1997-August 2003

 

Responsible for the day-to-day operations of The Vietnam Archive, which includes a staff of five full time professions in three departments and six graduate and undergraduate students to include all personnel, budget, and archival matters.  Responsibilities include collection acquisition, supervision of collection processing, reference requests, designing and mounting exhibits of archive materials, and outreach programs to junior and high school, college, and veterans organization, and all personnel decisions.  Current budget for the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University is $750,000 per year.

 

Project manager for the Virtual Vietnam Archive, which includes a staff of six full time professionals and nine graduate and undergraduate students.   The Virtual Vietnam Archive, a project to digitize all of the Vietnam Archive's non-copyright materials, is funded through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  Co-wrote two successful grants from the IMLS.  Responsible for day-today operations of the Virtual Vietnam Archive project, including the management of the $961,000 budget. 

 

Teach Honor seminars in the Honors College on the Vietnam War during the Spring semesters.

 

Parish Hill High School, Chaplin, Connecticut

Special Education Department aide, 1996-1997

 

Oversaw the coursework and modification for two special need students.

 

Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

University Archives and Records Management

Assistant to the University Archivist, 1993-1994 and 1995-1996

 

Managed the current collection of university publications and archival information; processed university collections; developed computer-driven database for university archives and records management.

 

Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

The College of Arts and Sciences, Academic Advising And Counseling Services

Assistant to the Director, Summer 1993 and 1994, 1994-1995

 

Shared responsibility for development of the undergraduate academic advising center; acted as liaison between the student peer advising program and the college in general scheduling, overseeing subcommittees, and program development; organized two electronic bulletins within the college and maintained the student peer advising discussion group; coordinated advising and scheduling for 1200 incoming first-year students and 100 faculty and 100 student peer advisors; processed mail registration and maintained computerized advising records for the incoming class.

 

Syracuse University, Syracuse