Lecture Series: Wisconsin Veterans Museum

Thursday, October 8, 2009
7:00 p.m.
Lecture and book signing
Nicholas Thompson, Author

Only two Americans held positions of great influence throughout the Cold War; ironically, they were the chief advocates for the opposing strategies for winning — and surviving — that harrowing conflict. Both men came to power during World War II, reached their professional peaks during the Cold War’s most frightening moments, and fought epic political battles that spanned decades. Yet despite their very different views, Paul Nitze and George Kennan dined together, attended the weddings of each other’s children, and remained good friends all their lives. Nitze’s grandson, Nicholas Thompson, weaves a fascinating narrative that follows these two rivals and friends from the beginning of the Cold War to its end, meanwhile telling the story of our nation during the most dangerous half century in history.

Sacred Trinity: U.S. National Security Policy during the American Century

Saturday, October 10, 2009
2:30 p.m.
Lecture and discussion
Andrew Bacevich, Professor of International Relations and History, Boston University

Vietnam Veteran and noted scholar Dr. Andrew Bacevich will describe the national security consensus that has informed US policy since World War II, and why this consensus persists. He will make the case that the consensus has become antithetical to the nation’s well-being and should be abandoned. Following this event, Dr. Bacevich will give a free lecture, “The Enduring Relevance of the Wisconsin School: What William Appleman Williams Got Right and Where He Went Wrong,” at the Overture Center at 5:30 p.m. as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival.

Friday, October 16, 2009
Noon
Lecture and book signing
Michael Allen, Professor of History, Northwestern University

Fewer Americans were captured or missing during the Vietnam War than in any previous major military conflict in U.S. history. Yet despite their small numbers, American POWs inspired an outpouring of concern that slowly eroded support for the war. Michael J. Allen reveals how wartime loss transformed U.S. politics well before, and long after, the war's official end. Throughout the war’s last years and in the decades since, Allen argues, the effort to recover lost warriors was as much a means to establish responsibility for their loss as it was a search for answers about their fate. Equally important, he explains, POW/MIA families’ disdain for the antiwar left and contempt for federal authority fueled the conservative ascendancy after 1968. Mixing political, cultural, and diplomatic history, Until the Last Man Comes Home presents the full and lasting impact of the Vietnam War in ways that are both familiar and surprising.

Civil-Military Relations and the Surge Decision

Thursday, November 5, 2009
7:00 p.m.
Lecture and discussion
Peter Feaver, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies, Duke University

On January 10, 2007, President Bush announced a dramatic change in strategy for the war in Iraq. The new strategy, which the media dubbed the “surge,” was the culmination of months of internal debate and review; and that review was the culmination of many more months of declining fortunes on the battlefield in Iraq. Join Peter Feaver, who as a Special Advisor at the National Security Council, participated in the internal review that led to the surge decision, for insight on one of the most consequential decisions by the national command authority in wartime in decades and what has become a fascinating case study of civil-military relations.

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Richard Zeitlin MA’69, PhD’73 was director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum from 1982 to 2008. The 2009 Dr. Richard H. Zeitlin Distinguished Lecture Series Event is presented in partnership with the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of History, Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy, the Grand Strategy Program, and the Wisconsin Alumni Association.