JA-Texas Tech_Redacted.pdf

department and a military history specialty in the Vietnam War. The Center of Military History has three historians working full-time on books about the Vietnam War, so CMH needs a GRA from a program with that specialty to best support those projects. The TTU History Department has 73 graduate students, of whom 47 are Ph.D. candidates. It has 15 military history graduate students, and 10 graduate students studying diplomatic history, which overlaps with CMH’s needs in military history. The university is home to The Vietnam Center & Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, the nation’s largest collection of documents on the war outside of the National Archives and official collections. While the faculty have wide-ranging expertise in American politics, the Civil War, World War II, Russian history, Classical and Medieval, the Vietnam War is a specialty:

i. Dr. Ron Milam is the Executive Director of the Institute for Peace & Conflict and a

Vietnam Veteran. His books include Not a Gentleman’s War: An Inside view of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War (2009), and The Vietnam War in Popular Culture: The Impact of America’s Most Controversial War on Everyday Life (2016)

ii. Dr. Justin Hart, Senior Academic Fellow, Institute for Peace & Conflict, is the author of Empire of Ideas: The Origins of Public Diplomacy and the Transformation of U.S.

Foreign Policy (2013)

iii. Dr. Laura Calkins is the author of China and the First Vietnam War, 1942-1954 and Voices from Vietnam.

iv. Dr. Steve Maxner, Director of Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive

TTU has supported the CMH GRA program since 2017. The five GRAs Texas Tech has sent to CMH have been a diverse group, which has helped CMH build a more professional and diverse hiring pool for future openings, and one of those GRAs co-authored a monograph for CMH titled The Lincoln Assassination (2020). TTU’s prior success in supporting CMH, the diversity of the GRAs it has sent to CMH, and the high quality of its graduate students, including the ability to take over and publish projects for the Army, all justify a sole source contract with TTU.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition:

a. Effective Competition: The Government does not intend to solicit additional sources for this effort for the reasons described in Paragraph 5 above.

b. Subcontracting competition: This action does not lend itself to subcontracting. The graduate research assistant will be a direct employee of the contracted university, which is the most efficient and cost-effective arrangement.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: No actions to increase future competition are contemplated at this time, as the TTU meets CMH’s needs.

8. Market Research: Pursuant to FAR 10.002 (Procedures), Dr. Shane Story conducted market research from January to March 2022 to determine the ability of all potential vendors to provide GRA support services to CMH. This research began with a list of 30 MA/PhD granting institutions compiled by the Society of Military History (https://www.smh-hq.org/grad/gradguide/degree.html) to compare research universities that specialized in military history. Dr. Story eliminated foreign universities from the list because one critical purpose of the program is to promote military history in American universities, and he eliminated private universities due to their expense and to prioritize public institutions. Other institutions were eliminated because their programs are too small--less than 50 graduate students and/or less than 10 military history graduate students—to have confidence that they could sustain the demand of sending one graduate student to CMH each year for five years. Of the six institutions that remain, only Texas Tech has a robust program in Vietnam studies, with its Vietnam Center and Archives and its faculty’s emphasis on Vietnam. Only TTU provides the concentrated expertise in the Vietnam War that would meet CMH’s need to support its three on-going Vietnam projects.

The resulting market research indicated that, although there are six universities that could provide general GRA support services, only TTU provides the required expertise in the Vietnam War. Only a contract with TTU would meet this requirement.

9. Interested Sources: To date, no other sources have written to express an interest.

The notices required by FAR 5.201 will be published and any proposals received will be considered.

10. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History: In 2017, the US Army Center of Military History entered into a contract W56HZV-17-P-L532 with TTU for GRA support services for a purchase price of $296,217.03. This contract is set to expire on 31 July 2022.

b. Other facts: None

11. Technical Certification:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Typed Name: Dr. William S. Story Date: 31 March 2022

Title: Chief, General Histories Division //wss//William S. Story

12. Requirements Certification:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Typed Name: Dr. William Shane Story Date: 31 March 2022

Title: Chief, General Histories Division //wss//William S. Story

13. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on the Independent Government Estimate and past procurement history. The contractor will not be required to submit certified cost and pricing data because the proposed action will be a commercial procurement IAW FAR 15.403-1(b)(3).

Typed Name: Elida Kellezi Date: 20 APR 2022

Title: Contracting Officer Signature: //EK//

14. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief:

Typed Name: Elida Kellezi Date: 20 APR 2022 Title: Contracting Officer Signature: //EK//