News from PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
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Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301For immediate release: Feb. 28, 2001
Contact: Marilyn Marks (609) 258-3601, mmarks@princeton.edu
Princeton, CIA co-host conference on Cold War intelligence
Conference to examine newly declassified documents
Princeton, N.J. -- Top policymakers, intelligence officials and scholars will examine newly declassified information about CIA analysis during the Cold War years at a major conference at Princeton University, March 9 and 10. The conference is expected to provide new insights about the quality of U.S. intelligence during those years and its impact on U.S. policymaking, said Frederick Hitz, a Princeton lecturer in public affairs.
The conference, "CIA’s Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947-1991,"will focus on intelligence during the years leading to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Among those scheduled to participate are Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser; James Schlesinger, former secretary of defense, secretary of energy and CIA director; Jack Matlock, U.S. ambassador in Moscow during the fall of the Soviet Union; and Oleg Kalugin, a former Soviet intelligence officer who took part in major spy operations against the U.S., including those of the Walker spy ring, before becoming a critic of the KGB. Scholars from Princeton and other research institutions also will participate in the conference, which is sponsored by Princeton’s Center of International Studies and the CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence.
"I think the conference will provide some interesting new insights into what the intelligence community knew about what was going on in the Soviet Union in those final days," said Hitz, who served as inspector general of the CIA from 1990 to 1998. "I think it’s terribly important for the historical record to be as complete as it can be on matters of what we knew and when we knew it during the Cold War."
At the conference, which is open to the press, seven panels of security practitioners and scholars will review and critique a sampling of more than 800 just-declassified documents -- totaling more than 18,000 pages -- related to the CIA’s analysis of the Soviet Union. The documents cover Soviet internal and foreign policy, economic growth, political developments, scientific progress and military readiness. A preliminary conference agenda is available at http://www.wws.princeton.edu/~cis/cia.html.
Registered participants will receive compact discs with the declassified documents and a one-volume book containing key judgments on CIA analysis.
Hitz noted that while a multitude of documents relating to Soviet intelligence has appeared in the post-Cold War period, there has not been as much information about U.S. intelligence. The new documents should answer important questions about how well U.S. intelligence understood and interpreted the unraveling of the U.S.S.R. and how that interpretation impacted American foreign, military and budget policy.
"The question remains: did we miss it?" Hitz said. "Did anybody in the West fully comprehend how poorly off the Soviet Union was in terms of its own economic stability and needs? I’m sure these documents will contribute insights into that matter."
Journalists who wish to cover all or most of the events are asked to register as conference participants. To register, contact Susan Binding, assistant director of the Center of International Studies at Princeton, at (609) 258-5437. The registration fee is $150, which includes admission to all conference activities, including meals at which prominent guest speakers will deliver remarks.
The conference is the third and final gathering in a series of CIA-sponsored conferences on the Cold War. A background briefing on the conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday, March 5 at CIA headquarters. Advance copies of the documents will be available, but all information will be embargoed for release until 8:30 a.m. March 9. You must contact Michael Tadie of the CIA’s Office of Public Affairs at (703) 482-7677 if you are interested in attending the briefing.
Note: Conference lunches and dinners, which feature addresses by Brzezinski, Schlesinger and Deputy CIA Director John E. McLaughlin, are open only to registered participants. These speakers are not scheduled to address the conference at any other time. Journalists who wish to cover the conference but do not wish to register will be welcomed at the panel discussions. Please contact Marilyn Marks at (609) 258-5748 if you have questions about media issues. For other information, contact Susan Bindig at (609) 258-5437.
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