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Staff profile

staff list  BackProf Kevin Ruane

  • Job title: Professor of Modern History
  • Dept: History and American Studies
  • Tel: 01227 454700 ext 27
  • Campus: Canterbury
 

Biographical detail:

Since the art of being an historian depends, in part, on discerning the relevant from the irrelevant and separating (approximate) truth from fiction, some or all of the following may not be strictly accurate.  See if you can work it out ...

In the 1970s Kevin Ruane formed one half of a legendary strike force for Newcastle United alongside Malcolm MacDonald (albeit disguised as John Tudor). So close were the two ace forwards - as friends as well as players - that when Supermac was sold to Arsenal in 1976, Ruane decided on a total career change. "Orgies of net-bursting glory have lost their allure for me now, Brian", he reflected in a tv interview.

There followed a sequence of short-lived jobs, including bodyguard to President Ronald Reagan (Ruane was sacked for failing to take a bullet for Ron in 1981), handbag carrier for Margaret Thatcher in the immediate post-Falklands period, and personal hairdresser to Arthur Scargill during the miners' strike. By this time, however, Ruane had developed a fascination for all things Vietnamese - indeed in 1991 he ran as a VWP parliamentary candidate for the Hanoi East constituency, but lost his deposit. Literally. He left it in the airport toilet, and was thus unable to take part in the poll.

On his return to the UK, he had a stint as a gate steward at Lord's cricket ground, but was dismissed for excessive politeness to customers. At which point he decided, in the words of Alan Bennett, that 'past time passed time', and the rest, as they say, is History.

Professor Ruane is former editor - now editorial board member - of the Taylor and Francis journal, Contemporary British History.

Teaching responsibilities:

  • US-Soviet Relations and the Cold War
  • War and Revolution in Vietnam
  • Research interests:

      1. British Foreign Policy 1945-70

      2. Anglo-American Relations 1945-1970
      3. The Cold War Asia, including Vietnam

Professor Ruane's books include:

  • The Rise and Fall of the European Defence Community: Anglo-American Relations and the Crisis of European Defence, 1950-1955 (London: Macmillan, 2000)
  • The Vietnam Wars (Manchester: MUP, 2000)
  • War and Revolution in Vietnam, 1930-1975 (London: Routledge, 1998)

Other publications include:

  • 'The New Asia: Decolonization, the Cold War and the Making of Southeast Asia', in Gordon Martel, ed., The Blackwell Companion to International History 1900-2001 (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)
  • 'Anglo-American Relations, the Cold War, and Middle East Defence, 1953-55', Journal of Transatlantic Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1 (2006)
  • 'The USA in Vietnam' in Jospeh R. Mitchell and Helen Buss Mitchell, eds., World History Vol. II 1500 to the Present (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006).
  • 'SEATO, MEDO and the Baghdad Pact: Anthony Eden, British Foreign Policy and the Collective Defence of South-East Asia and the Middle East, 1952-1955', Diplomacy and Statecraft, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2005)  
  • With James Ellison - 'Managing the Americans: Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and the Pursuit of "Power by Proxy" in the 1950s', in Gaynor Johnson, ed., The Foreign Office and British Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century (London: Cass, 2004)  
  • With James Ellison - 'Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and the Pursuit of "Power by Proxy" in the 1950s', Contemporary British History, Vol. 18, No. 3 (2004) 
  • "Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society", The Modern History Review, Vol 15, No. 4 (Jun. 2004) 
  • 'The United States in Asia: I – Korea', The Modern History Review, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Apr. 2003)  
  • 'The United States in Asia: II – Vietnam', The Modern History Review, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Apr. 2003) 
  • 'Agonizing Reappraisals: Anthony Eden, John Foster Dulles and the Crisis of European Defence, 1953-54', Diplomacy and Statecraft, Vol. 13, No. 4 (2002) 
  • 'Putting America in its Place? Recent Writing on the History of the Vietnam Wars, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2002) 
  • 'Fighting While Negotiating: The United States, North Vietnam and the Paris Peace Process, May 1968 to January 1973', The Modern History Review, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Sept. 2001) 
  • 'Anthony Eden, the Foreign Office and Anglo-French Relations, 1951-1954' in Alan Sharp & Glyn Stone, eds, Anglo-French Relations in the Twentieth Century: Rivalry and Cooperation (London: Routledge, 2000)  
  • 'Was Vietnam a war that the United States could never win?' in Peter Catterall (ed.), Exam Essays in 20th Century World History (London: Heinemann, 1999) 
  • 'Containing America: Aspects of British Foreign Policy and the Cold War in Southeast Asia, 1951-1954', Diplomacy & Statecraft, Vol.7, No.1 (1996)  
  • 'Refusing to Pay the Price: British Foreign Policy and the Pursuit of Victory in Vietnam, 1952-1954', English Historical Review, Vol. CX, No.435 (1995)
  • 'Anthony Eden, British Diplomacy and the Origins of the Geneva Conference of 1954', The Historical Journal, Vol.37, No.1 (1994)

Recent conference papers and talks

  • 1998 'Anthony Eden's Fear of "Fortress America": Britain, America and the Demise of the European Defence Community, 1953-54', 3rd Pan-European Conference on International Relations Wirtschaftsuniversität, Vienna
  • 1998 Historians and the Vietnam War: The Unending Debate', The Historical Association (Canterbury Branch), King's School, Canterbury
  • 1999 'From Profusion to Confusion: Sources for 20th century International and Diplomatic History', Canterbury Christ Church University College, Postgraduate Research Seminar
  • 2001 'Putting America in its Place: Recent Writing on the History of the Vietnam War', University of Kent at Canterbury, History Research Seminar
  • 2001 'The United States, South Vietnam, and the "spectre" of Neutralization, 1963-65', 13th Annual BIHG Conference, Canterbury Christ Church University College
  • 2001 'Lyndon B. Johnson and the search for political stability in Saigon, 1963-65', London School of Economics and Political Science, International History Research Seminar
  • 2001 'Anglo-American Relations and the Birth of the Western European Union in 1954', 26th Annual Conference of the British International Studies Association, University of Edinburgh
  • 2002 'Putting America in its Place: Recent Writing on the History of the Vietnam Wars', Historical Association (Brighton Branch), Lancing College, West Sussex
  • 2003 [with James Ellison] 'The Foreign Office, Anglo-American Relations and the Pursuit of "Power by Proxy", 1952-1957', The Foreign Office and British Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century: International conference, Institute of Contemporary British History, University of London
  • 2003 'The Historiography of Cold War Origins', King's School Canterbury VIth Form History Group .
  • 2005 [with James Ellison] '"This is not an easy operation": British Conservative Governments and the Management of the Anglo-American "special relationship", 1951-63', 4th annual Transatlantic Studies Association Conference, Nottingham University.
  • 2005-2009, Premier Student Conferences: talks given on 'Why did America lose the Vietnam war?'; 'The Rise and Fall of Detente'; 'The first Vietnam war'; 'The nature of the Cold War'
  • 2006 'The Rise and Fall of Detente', Canterbury College History Group
  • 2006 'The Vietnam War and the Making of Modern Southeast Asia', Inaugural Professorial lecture, Canterbury Christ Church University
  • 2007 'American Imperialism in the 20th Century', Cambridge History Forum, Selwyn College, Cambridge
  • 2007 'Ideology and the Cold War', Canterbury College History Group
  • 2009, 'In Search of the Origins of the Eden-Dulles feud: Britain, America and the Cold War in East Asia, 1951-53', Centre for Contemporary British History Summer Conference, Institute of Historical Research, London
  • 2009, 'From the Yoshida letter to the Unleashing of Chiang: the Asian Cold War and the Origins of the Eden-Dulles feud, 1952-53, 8th Annual Transatlantic Studies Association Conference, CCCU