Katy (Haman) Humphreys
The Pursuit of Safety: Fighting Communism and Terrorism to Preserve America’s Way of Life
Katy (Haman) Humphreys, a history major titled her honors project “The Pursuit of Safety: Fighting Communism and Terrorism to Preserve America’s Way of Life.” In her project, Humphreys wanted to develop a comparison between speeches given by United States Presidents during the Cold War, and those made by President Bush during the Iraq War. She was curious as to why the U.S. was involved in Iraq, particularly when her brother joined the military and was sent over.
When comparing the two military operations, Humphreys felt “I was curious how they were similar and how they were different. Her research, done in the fall off 2009 looked at various speeches made by Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush. Humphreys also spent countless hours looking through Department of Defense records of military involvement, The Pentagon Papers and other memos.
One of the biggest surprises was that regardless of political parties, the Presidents whose speeches she read all tended to use the same rhetoric. They were trying to get the American people to support a pre-emptive strike to protect America. The most important similarity Humphreys observed was that any political theory cannot be imposed if the majority of the invaded country does not want it. Humphreys was also surprised to see that in many of the speeches she examined the President was trying to secure peace and freedom and that America had a responsibility to help other countries.
Humphreys acknowledged that while doing a departmental honors project takes a lot of extra time, there are benefits that come from it. “I liked being able to work at my own pace and not have to worry about deadlines as much.” Humphreys also stressed that doing a departmental honors project could help her in her future plans after graduation. “I learned that projects like this are difficult but worthwhile. I learned skills that I will be able to use law school, such as being able to read documents.” In the end, Humphreys feels she has a finished product she can be proud of.
