www.raleighspyconference.com

Star Lineup for 2005 Conference

A “who’s who” of scholars and intelligence experts will gather in Raleigh for the third annual Raleigh International Spy Conference, set for Wednesday-Friday, Aug. 31-Sept. 2, at the N.C. Museum of History. The conference is presented by Bernie Reeves, editor and publisher of Raleigh’s Metro Magazine, and the N.C. Museum of History.

The theme for the 2005 event is Old Spies, New Threats. Topics will include a comparison of claims made by the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy to newly available declassified information, the influence of the Left on Hollywood activists, an analysis of the decline of the Communist Party U.S.A. from 1930 to 1945, the emerging danger of Chinese espionage in the United States, the part played by American communist agents in establishing new computer and microelectronic technology for the Soviets, and the latest in new data from the Venona files and other formerly classified sources.

Speakers and their subjects for the third annual Raleigh International Spy Conference are:*
Ronald Radosh – keynote speaker and co-author of The Rosenberg File on the topic of his newly released Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony’s Long Romance With the Left

Harvey Klehr – co-author of In Denial: Historians, Communism and Espionage on the topic: Was Joe McCarthy Right: What New Evidence From Secret Archives Say About Soviet Espionage in America

John Earl Haynes – co-author of In Denial and the series Annals of Communism by Yale University Press, on the damage caused by Soviet manipulation of the Communist Party U.S.A. from the 1930s to 1945

I.C. Smith – author of Inside: A Top G-Man Exposes Spies, Lies and Bureaucratic Bungling Inside the FBI, on Chinese espionage in the United States

Nigel West – author of Venona: The Greatest Secret of the Cold War, on the latest revelations of Soviet espionage

Steve Usdin – author of the new book Engineering Communism: How Two Americans Spied for Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley, on the story of two Rosenberg spy ring members who fled to the Soviet Union to help build a city dedicated to microelectronics and computing.

“We have seen enrollment increase each year,” says Raleigh International Spy Conference founder Bernie Reeves, “as word has spread around the world that we put on a first-class event with top-flight speakers here in Raleigh. In year one, we examined espionage in the Cold War up to today’s intelligence environment; year two we presented experts on the subject of intelligence and terrorism; and this year we cover the current intellectual debate raging around the effort of ‘revisionists’ to deny the new evidence available about the Cold War side by side with the new threat of Chinese espionage.”
Elizabeth F. Buford, director of the N.C. Museum of History, is grateful to conference founder Bernie Reeves. “The Raleigh International Spy Conference has brought the museum national and international visibility, and funds from this event support other museum programs.”

The conference fee is $250 per registrant. Reduced registration is $175 for seniors (55 or over) and $145 for educators, students and the intelligence community. The fee includes all sessions, the keynote address and a ticket for an evening gala on Thursday, Sept. 1. Additional gala tickets are available to conference attendees for $30.
For registration information, access www.raleighspyconference.com, call Brooke Eidenmiller at 919-807-7875 or e-mail brooke.eidenmiller@ncmail.net. Hotel information is available at www.raleighspyconference.com.

* The speaker lineup is subject to change.

The N.C. Museum of History’s hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. The museum is part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives and History, an agency of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. The department’s website is www.ncdcr.gov.