lectures/awards

Living History Program

What would it be worth to history to have filmed lengthy interviews with Woodrow Wilson and his staff on the proceedings at Versailles in 1919? Documentation of this sort would be priceless, of course; it would be history personalized and made permanent.

Now, through the vision and the generosity of Jay Rutherfurd, and the quality of video and sound recording, Duke University has embarked upon an exceptional project: the recording of living history.

The central purpose of The Living History Program is documentation on videotape of interviews by Duke faculty with prominent American and world leaders who have been part of international events. The years after 1945 saw the creation and implementation of the Marshall Plan; the development of the United Nations; the emergence of the Middle East, Africa and Central America as centerpieces of geopolitics; the evolution of the Cold War and the controversies surrounding Vietnam and, more recently, global terrorism and events in the Middle East.

The Living History Program is of value to historians and political scientists, both as teachers and scholars, meeting an urgent historical need, while at the same time making "living history" available as an effective instructional approach of particular interest to students.

To date, the Living History Collection includes videotapes of more than 50 interviews and recorded lectures with prominent figures such as Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, James Schlesinger, Elie Wiesel, Les Aspin, Jesse Jackson, and, most recently, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Along with the interviews, the Duke Living History Program also offers a selection of composite collections and transcripts based upon specific topics common to two or more lecturers. These compilations are of particular use in the classroom as they provide students with the opportunity to witness the differing opinions of foremost figures on the same event or topic. The subjects covered are as follows:

• Misinformation and Crisis Management: The Vietnam War
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
• The Influence of Political Action Committees in Domestic and Foreign Affairs: The American-Israeli Connection

The Living History Program is administered by the DeWitt Wallace Center for Communications and Journalism in the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. Recordings are housed at the Duke University Special Collections Library (see below for contact information) and are available to both institutions and individuals. Reproduction costs vary according to the length of the recordings and transcripts.

Interviews in the Living History Collection at Duke University

John Sherman Cooper	1973	Political Recollections
W. Stanton Griffis	1974	Diplomatic Career
Earl T. Smith	1974	Cuba
Lucius Clay	1975	Post WWII Career in Europe
W. Averell Harriman	1977	U.S. - Soviet Relations
Ryoichi Sasakawa	1979	Sasakawa's Career
Ellsworth Bunker	1979	Diplomatic Career in India, the Far East, and Vietnam
Dean Rusk	1981	Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, Vietnam
J. William Fulbright	1984	Foreign Relations, Vietnam
Charles Percy	1986	Foreign Relations
Robert McNamara	1986	Cuban Missile Crisis Arms Control
James Schlesinger	1987	Crisis Management
Elie Wiesel	1988	Memories of the Holocaust
Abdus Salam	1989	Nuclear Physics
Soedjatmoko	1989	U.S. - Indonesian Relations
Victor Urquiti	1989	International Economics
Jack Matlock	1989	U.S.- Soviet Relations
Paul Nitze	1990	Defense Issues
Yasuhiro Nakasone	1990	Japanese Politics, U.S. - Japanese Affairs
Angier & Robin Duke	1990	Career in Foreign Service, Memories of JFK and LBJ
King Mikai of Rumania	1991	Rumania Before and After Communist Rule
Walter Davis	1991	Education; Oil and the Middle East
Turgut Ozal	1991	Turkish Politics, Middle East Relations
Oscar Arias	1991	Central American Politics, The Peace Plan
George McGhee	1991	Diplomatic Career in Turkey, West Germany
Samuel W. Lewis	1992	Ambassador to Israel; Carter Administration
Imam W. Deen Mohammed	1992	Muslim/American Spokesman
Vernon Walters	1992	Deputy Director, CIA; Representative to UN; Ambassador to Bonn; US Cold War Diplomacy
Jesse Jackson	1992	Personal Experiences; Civil Rights
Terry Sanford	1995	NC Governor, US Senator; Civil Rights
William and Wendy Luers	1995	Experiences in Russia; Ambassador to Venezuela and Czechoslovakia; Art and Diplomacy
Les Aspin	1995	Political Experiences; Secretary of Defense
Miguel de la Madrid	1996	Mexico
Jack Matlock	1997	Soviet Union
Erhard Busek	1997	Central Europe (Austria)
Hanna Suchoka	1997	Poland
Richard Goldstone	1997	South Africa and the UN
Samuel DuBois Cook	1998	First African American Professor at Duke
Afredo Christiani	1998	Former President of El Salvador
Mikhail Margelov	1999	Television and Elections in Russia
Phillip Gourevitch	1999	Human Rights in Africa
David Gergen	1999	At-Large Editor, U.S. News and World Report; former White House Advisor to presidents Clinton, Reagan, Ford and Nixon
Judy Woodruff	1999	Senior Anchor, CNN
Yegor Gaidar	2000	Candidate for Russian Presidency
Lloyd Axeworthy	2001	Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1996-2000
Robert Jordan	2002	U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Princeton Lyman	2003	Former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria
Jamie Shea	2003	NATO Director of Information and Media Relations
Richard Kaplan	2004	Former President of MSNBC
Dennis Ross	2005	U.S. Envoy to the Middle East
James Carville	2006	U.S. Democratic Party Consultant
John Poindexter	2006	National Security Adviser for Ronald Reagan; Total Information Awareness Program for George W. Bush
Anthony Zinni	2007	General, US Marine Corps (Ret.); Commander in Chief of the U.S. Central Command (1997-2000); U.S. Special Envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (2002)

For further information regarding the purchase or use of the material, please contact:

Rare Book, Manuscript, & Special Collections Library
Duke University
Box 90185
Durham, NC 27708
Tel. 919-660-5822

For information regarding the program, contact:

DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy
Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy
Duke University
Box 90241
Durham, NC 27708-0241
Tel. 919-613-7330
media@pps.duke.edu