CAPE MAY –In a world full of spies, Snowdens and government contractors stealing top secret files, this lecture by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) couldn’t be more timely.
Former leader of the U.S. intelligence community and advisor to two presidents – one Democrat, one Republican – Joan Dempsey will present her lecture “Our Nation’s Security: How Intelligence History Affects the Future,” on Sunday, Oct. 9 at 4 p.m. at Cape May Convention Hall, 714 Beach Ave.
This is the fifth annual lecture in the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) Lessons of History Distinguished Lecture Series.
Dempsey is former deputy director of central intelligence for community management and the first woman confirmed by the Senate for one of the top three U.S. intelligence positions; former executive director of the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board; former assistant secretary of defense for intelligence and security; former deputy director of defense intelligence for analysis and production; former naval reserve officer and former naval cryptologist. (Wasn’t that Ben Miller’s job in the Navy?)
Her more than 45 years of intelligence and policy experience, combined with her rare position as a senior political appointee in both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations, give her the ultimate insider’s perspective on the history of modern U.S. intelligence.
She states:
The history of the Cold War is the history of U.S. intelligence in the modern age. The U.S. government’s insatiable need for information to prevent or counter real and perceived Soviet threats drove development of American space and advanced technology programs that produced radar, lasers, stealth and quantum computing. Intelligence operations during the Cold War often were used as surrogates for “hot wars” but with very real costs and implications for global security that extend far beyond the decades in which they were conducted. The dismantling of that intelligence system in the 1990s had equally dramatic as well as unforeseen implications for global stability. America’s ambivalence about a strong central intelligence system continues to undermine both national and global security.
This lecture is co-sponsored by MAC and Martel & Associates (Myles & Leslie Martel). Tickets for this limited event are $30. For lecture and reception: $50. To purchase tickets, please call 609-884-5404 or visit www.capemaymac.org.
The lecture will be followed by a meet-the-speaker reception hosted by Doug and Anna McMain at The Queen Victoria Bed & Breakfast Inn, 102 Ocean St.
It sure was my job about 20 years ago, John. Back then, I was CTT3 Benjamin R. Miller and and my security clearance was TS/SCI with access to TK and another control system that’s still classified.
Now, I’m boring.
Darn. Wish I could fly up for this !!