THE COLD WAR MUSEUM HOSTS CONFERENCE
ON THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF PRAGUE SPRING
FAIRFAX, VA, September 16, 2008--The Cold War Museum in conjunction with the Embassies of the Czech and Slovak Republics will convene a distinguished gathering of diplomats, officials and historians on Saturday, October 11 in Fairfax County to discuss the Prague Spring of 1968. A sell out crowd is expected. Registration forms and additional information are available online at www.coldwar.org/praguespring.
The daylong program will be at South County Secondary School, 8501 Silverbrook Road, in Lorton, Virginia. South County and The Cold War Museum are educational partners and the students are assisting with conference logistics. The conference is FREE for students with a valid school ID and open to the general public. Registration will begin at 8:00 a.m., with the program starting at 9:00 a.m. Fairfax County Supervisor Chairman, Gerald Connolly, will provide opening remarks. The conference fee for non students through October 8th, 2008, is $25. All payments made after October 8th, 2008 or at the door are $30. Ticket price includes lunch.
Conference attendees will have the opportunity to hear from a variety of speakers including Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Russia, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria and Jordan; Arnaud de Borchgrave, who currently serves as the Director of Transnational Threats at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and as the Editor-at-Large for United Press International and the Washington Times; and Ambassador Richard W. Carlson, who currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and who is the former Director-General of Voice of America. Adam Hradilek, part of the faculty with the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Havelkova, Czech Republic; Pavel Litvinov, who in 1968 was a leader of protests in Russia against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia; and representatives from the Cold War International History Project and George Washington University, will participate.
Breakout sessions will include but are not limited to collecting oral histories from Cold War veterans, a session on “Spy Craft” led by Linda McCarthy, Founding Curator of the CIA Museum, a presentation on the history of the Lorton Nike Missile site, and other Cold War topics. For a complete list of speakers and breakout sessions, please visit www.coldwar.org/praguespring. Plans call for the museum’s permanent headquarters to be located on the grounds of the former Lorton Nike Missile Site less than one mile away.
The Cold War Museum, Czech and Slovak Embassies, and South County Secondary School are hosts for the program. Our Title Sponsor is EnviroSolutions, Inc.
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More information: Francis Gary Powers, Jr., 703-273-2381;
www.coldwar.org/praguespring; museum@coldwar.org
