Rob Thompson
Rob Thompshon has a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Southern Mississippi. He specializes in the study of the Vietnam War, with a focus on the confluence of conventional warfare and pacification at the province level. His research placed American strategy in the context of a single province—Phú Yên. He is also familiar with the history of American diplomacy and the history of Modern Europe. Before studying history in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, he completed his MA at Wilfrid Laurier University in lovely Waterloo, Ontario and my BA near the ocean at Virginia Wesleyan College, now University. He is presently a historian with the Films Team at Army University Press at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Oklahoma University Press published his book on the American War in Phú Yên Province in the spring of 2021. An evolved iteration of his dissertation, his book addressed the relationship between conventional warfare and pacification. He argued that conventional warfare was pacification. Covered in the study are the numerous search and destroy operations devised by units under the control of I Field Force, Vietnam to improve Phú Yên’s security. The ramifications of the removal of American troops during Vietnamization are also examined. For more on his conventional warfare as pacification argument, read his article at The New York Times.
