For the fifth year, the John A. Adams Center at the Virginia Military Institute is pleased to announce that it will award prizes for the best unpublished papers dealing with the United States military in the Cold War era (1945-1991). Any aspect of the Cold War is eligible, with papers on war planning, intelligence, logistics, and mobilization especially welcome. Please note that essays which relate aspects of the Korean and Southeast Asian conflicts to the larger Cold War are also open for consideration.

Prizes: First place will earn a plaque and a cash award of $2000; second place, $1000 and a plaque; and third place, $500 and a plaque.

Procedures: Entries should be tendered to the Adams Center at VMI by 15 June 2009. Please make your submission by Microsoft Word and limit your entry to a maximum of twenty-five pages of double-spaced text, exclusive of documentation and bibliography. A panel of judges will, over the summer, examine all papers and the Adams Center will announce its top three rankings early in the fall of 2009. The Journal of Military History will be happy to consider those award winners for publication.

Submissions and questions:
Professor Malcolm Muir, Jr., Director
John A. Adams '71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis
Department of History
Virginia Military Institute; Lexington, VA 24450
muirm@vmi.edu
540-464-7447/7338
Fax: 540-464-7246

Winner of the 2007-08 Cold War essay contest

First prize: $2000:
"The Genesis of the Sixth Fleet: The U.S. Navy and Early Cold War Foreign Policy in the Mediterranean, 1946 - 1948" by Michael A. Palmer, East Carolina University

Second prize: $1000
"In a Foreign Land: GIs, West Germans, and Refugees in Franconia, 1945 - 1960" by Adam Seipp, Texas A & M University

Third prize: $500
"The Atomic Air Offensive and the Change in American Military Tradition, 1945 - 1950" by John M. Curatola, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order)

"The Quiet Death of Universal Military Training: How America Lost an Opportunity to Close the Civil-Military Gap" by Robert K. Dean, Norwich University

"Lessons of the Korean War and the Public Debate over Containment and American National Military Strategy, 1950 - 1955" by Hal M. Friedman, Henry Ford Community College

"Detachment Number 1: African-American Prisoners at Camp 5 during the Korean Conflict" by Thomas J. Ward, Jr., Spring Hill College