KNOXVILLE — Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Newsweek managing editor Jon Meacham and Winston S. Churchill, grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, will be among notable British and American speakers at a conference on U.S.-British relations at the University of Tennessee March 29-30.
“The United States and Britain: The Legacy of Churchill’s Atlantic Alliance” is a collaboration of UT’s Howard Baker Center for Public Policy and the Churchill Archives Centre. The conference, free and open to the public, will be held at the Carolyn P. Brown University Center.
The alliance between the Baker Center and the Churchill Archives is significant because the two institutions share the goal of preserving history to help shape the future, Baker Center Executive Director Alan Lowe said. Lowe said he hopes the collaboration on this conference will lead to a long-term relationship between the Baker Center and the Churchill Archives Centre and Cambridge University.
-The alliance between Great Britain and the United States has been a key feature of the international scene for more than 60 years. From the trials of World War II, through the Cold War and to the present day War on Terror, our two nations have stayed closely tied together,” he said. “We look forward to having tremendously distinguished speakers here to talk about the past, present and future of this very special relationship.”
History buffs and those interested in the current relationship between Britain and America in trade, national security and international relations, will find those topics featured at this conference. Other sessions will include in-depth looks at the relationships between Thatcher and U.S. President Ronald Reagan; Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt; and British Prime Ministers Sir Anthony Eden and Harold MacMillan and U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower.
The Baker Center, which opened in 2003, is a non-partisan center dedicated to creating a better understanding of government and fostering a greater appreciation for the importance of public service. The center offers programs for students, teachers and the public, and houses a collection of political papers.
The Churchill Archives Centre, built in 1973, is part of Churchill College at Cambridge University. The center houses 3,000 boxes of Sir Winston Churchill’s letters and documents ranging from his first childhood letters to his great war-time speeches to the writings which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature. The center has Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s personal and political papers, and also holds the papers of more than 570 prominent people which serve to document the history of the Churchill era and after.
A black-tie gala fund-raising dinner on March 29 will coincide with the conference. The dinner, to be held at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 Gay St., Knoxville, is being chaired by Knoxville civic leaders Sherri P. Lee and Mark and Deborah Brezina. The Churchill Centre and the Baker Center will share dinner proceeds to further their programs.
For more information on the British-American conference or the gala dinner contact the Baker Center at (865) 974-0931 or visit the center’s Web site at http://bakercenter.utk.edu.
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Contact:
Amy Blakely, (865) 974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu
Alan Lowe, (865) 974-8515, alowe4@tennessee.edu
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CONFIRMED SPEAKERS FOR BRITISH-AMERICAN CONFERENCE
* Winston S. Churchill, grandson of Sir Winston Churchill and former member of the British Parliament.
* Dr. Henry Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977, and now chairman of an international consulting firm.
* Jon Meacham, managing editor of Newsweek magazine and author of The New York Times best-seller “Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship.”
* Lord Charles David Powell of Bayswater, an international businessman who served as private secretary and foreign policy and defense adviser to Margaret Thatcher when she was British prime minister.
* Howard Baker Jr., former U.S. Senator and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan.
* Allen Packwood, director of the Churchill Archives Centre.
* Dr. Richard Toye, professor of modern British political history at Homerton College in Britain.
* David Reynolds, professor of 20th century international history at Christ’s College, Cambridge, England.
* Anthony Edmonds and E. Bruce Geelhoed, professors at Ball State University and co-authors of “Eisenhower, Macmillan and Allied Unity, 1957-69,” and co-editors of “Macmillan-Eisenhower Correspondence, 1957-1969.”
* Thomas Barnett, former senior strategic researcher at the U.S. Naval War College and an expert in the link between development and security.
* Lord Alan Watson, chairman of Burson Marsteller Europe and Corporate Television Networks.
* Sir John Dixon Ikle Boyd, master of Churchill College, Cambridge, and former British Ambassador to Japan.
* Jack Kemp Jr., former U.S. Representative, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, former candidate for president and vice president, and former professional football player.
* Bill vanden Heuvel, co-chair of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and former United Nations representative.
* Lawrence Eagleburger, former U.S. Secretary of State.
* Mike Fitzgerald, UT professor of political science who is teaching a companion course to this conference.