KNOXVILLE — Several officials from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are in England this week to participate in “The Legacy of the Cold War,” a conference jointly sponsored by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy and the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, University of Cambridge.
The conference, on Wednesday and Thursday, is a follow-up to a successful international conference the two centers co-sponsored in Knoxville in March 2006.
The conference will be taped so the proceedings can be shown here later this year.
“I am very pleased that our Baker Center has collaborated with the Churchill Archives Centre — three years ago in Knoxville and now in Great Britain,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek, who is attending the conference and will offer a toast to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at a luncheon prior to the start of the conference.
“I hope our two centers will continue to collaborate to maintain archives and offer programs that will allow us to learn from the modern political history shaped by Sir Winston Churchill, Sen. Baker and many other distinguished public servants throughout the world, many of whom are with us for this conference,” Cheek said. “I also hope we can expand upon our collaboration. Churchill College is known for expertise in science, engineering and technology, and there is great potential to work with the University of Tennessee through our relationships with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge Associated Universities.”
The conference will begin with a discussion called “Opening Witness Panel: The Cold War Generation.” Panelists will include Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight Eisenhower, and Vyacheslav Nikonov, grandson of Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov.
Other sessions on the first day include “The Origins of the Cold War: From Yalta to Korea,” “Prelude to Détente: Cuba to Vietnam,” “From Détente to Dialogue: Witnesses to History” and “In the Shadow of the Bomb: The Technology of the Cold War.”
Sessions on the second day include “Coming in from the Cold: Intelligence in the Cold War,” “Ending the Cold War: Uncertainties and Breakthroughs in Europe,” “The European Legacy,” “The Asian Legacy” and “Lessons of the Cold War.”
Other participants in the conference include Baker Center Interim Director Carl Pierce; Churchill Archives Centre Director Allen Packwood; former U.S. Sen. John Warner; Thom Mason, director of ORNL; former U.S. Ambassador to Poland and former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe; Hugh Lunghi, former interpreter for Winston Churchill at meetings with Stalin; Lord Charles Powell, former private secretary to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; and scholars, diplomats and journalists from around the world. Sen. Baker was unable to make the trip.
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C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)