Forty years ago, in the Hollybush Mansion on the grounds of then Glassboro State College, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin met face to face for an historic two-day summit meeting to debate their opposing views on the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War and discuss the perils of the nuclear arms race.

These were tense times for the United States, for the Soviet Union and for the world. And while Johnson and Kosygin signed no formal agreement, they did acknowledge that the Hollybush Summit was successful. The president dubbed the promise of good future relations "the Spirit of Hollybush."

Throughout the 2007-08 Academic Year, Rowan University celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the Glassboro Summit with a series of speakers and presentations that bridged academic disciplines and perspectives.

September 17, 2007 - “40 Years After the Glassboro Summit”
U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews discusses measures taken by Congress to reduce the possibility of terrorists’ using nuclear or radiological bombs against the U. S.
[Play video of Lecture]

October 4, 2007 - “Telecommunications since the Glassboro Summit: Great Ideas that Reshaped the World”
Renowned engineer, Robert W. Lucky, explores changes in telecommunications in the last 40 years.
[Play video of Lecture]

November 1, 2007 - “Lee Blessing”
A discussion with Lee Blessing about his play, “A Walk in the Woods,” a story about a friendship between a young American diplomat and his Soviet counterpart set during the 1980’s nuclear arms summit.
[Play video of Lecture]

November 1, 2007 - “The Soviet Union in the Cold War: A Failed Empire”
Dr. Vladislav Zubok, Prof. of History, Temple University, discusses his latest book that covers the entire Cold W ar from the Soviet perspective.
[Play video of Lecture]

November 8, 2007 - “The Perils of Nuclear Proliferation in Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea”
Dr. Scott Sagan, Prof. of Political Science, Stanford University, discusses policy research, international security problems, and international security policy-making.
[Play video of Lecture]

November 12, 2007 - “The Perspective of the Civil Rights Movement”
Symposium showing connections between international and social justice issues and the struggle for civil rights in N.J. and the U. S. in the 1960s.
[Play video of Lecture]

December 4, 2007 - “National Intelligence Estimate: What went wrong.”
Senator Graham, former chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, speaks about the U.S. intelligence failures leading to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
[Listen | Download | Visit the WGLS-FM Podcast Page]

February 19, 2008 - “Johnson and Kosygin at the dawn of détente”
Dr. Sergei Khrushchev, Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies, is an expert in the history of the Cold War, turning points in U.S. as well as Soviet relations, and Soviet missiles and space development, in which he played an active role, from 1958-1968.
[Listen | Download | Visit the WGLS-FM Podcast Page]

February 20, 2008 - Documentary: Edith Stillwell's - "Still Falls the Rain"
Benjamin Britten's Canticle III (tenor, horn, and piano) is the musical setting for this piece which explores images and rhetoric of social protest to war which incorporates narration, interviews, and footage from the Viet Nam era and the present.

March 11, 2008 - "America, Russia and the World Since the End of the Cold War: Resolving Conflict in a New Era"
The Honorable Jack Matlock, the American ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to just before the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, will discuss U.S.-Soviet relations since the end of the Cold War. Ambassador Matlock is the author of numerous books and articles on the topic and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

March 27, 2008 - 40 Years of Space Exploration
Co-founder of EPITAXX and Sensors Unlimited, Dr. Olsen is an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) Fellow and was the first recipient of the prestigious IEEE Aron Kressel Award. In 2005, Dr. Olsen was the third private citizen to orbit the Earth on the International Space Station, where he performed more than 150 orbits and logged almost 4 million miles of weightless travel during his 10 days in space. Dr. Olsen will recount his experience in outer space and also will provide a retrospective of the space race and his vision of our future in space.

April 1, 2008 - Symposium: “Soldiers of the Cold War: Political activism of ethnic groups in the U.S. during the Cold War”
This research symposium focuses on the political activism of ethnic groups such as Hungarians, Bulgarians, Vietnamese, Cubans and Hmong in the U.S. They fought against communism independently of the two superpowers through the media and their organizations such as the Assembly of Captive European Nations.

April 11, 2008 - Panel Discussion: Symposium on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Global Politics
Award-winning journalist Dan Rather will serve as moderator of "Symposium on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Global Politics," Rowan University's capstone program marking the 40th anniversary of the Hollybush Summit, on Friday, April 11, at 4:30 p.m. in Pfleeger Concert Hall, Wilson Hall.

The symposium panel will explore why, with much discussion in academic circles and think tanks about nuclear proliferation, there is so little discussion on the topic within the global political arena.

Rather, a former CBS anchor, is one of the most recognized reporters of our time. He covered many of the seminal moments of modern history, including the Hollybush Summit in June 1967.

The event is part of the yearlong Hollybush Lecture Series, marking the 40th anniversary of the historic Cold War-era summit between President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin at the Hollybush Mansion on the campus of then-Glassboro State College.

Moderator:

Dan Rather, former CBS anchor
One of the most recognized reporters of our time, Rather has covered history’s defining moments. He was a reporter at the Hollybush Summit in 1967.

Panelists:

William Potter, Director, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor of Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS)

Co-author of The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism (2005), Potter serves on the Nonproliferation Panel of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control for the National Academy of Sciences. For five years, he served on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters and was a board member of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. He directs the Monterey Institute’s Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Joseph Cirincione, President, Ploughshares Fund

Cirincione, author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, recently joined the Ploughshares Fund, a public grant making foundation that pools contributions and directs those funds to initiatives aimed at preventing the spread and use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and other weapons of war, and preventing conflicts that could lead to the use of weapons of mass destruction. He previously served as senior vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress and as director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for eight years. In 2004, the National Journal listed Cirincione as one of the 100 people whose ideas will shape the policies of the next administration.

Rose Gottemoeller, Moscow Center Director, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Director of the Moscow Center since 2006, Gottemoeller formerly served as deputy undersecretary for defense nuclear nonproliferation in the U.S. Department of Energy. As a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment, she held a joint appointment with the Russian and Eurasian Program and the Global Policy Program. A specialist on defense and nuclear issues in Russia and other former Soviet states, Gottemoeller has researched nuclear security and stability, nonproliferation and arms control.

>> Back to Top

For more information, please call Media & Public Relations at 856.256.4240.