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Two-day foreign relations symposium
a tribute to Paterson's scholarship
October 13, 1998

A two-day symposium on "Revisionism in U.S. Foreign Relations" will take place October 23 and 24 at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. The symposium is a tribute to the scholarship of Thomas G. Paterson, a professor emeritus of history, who retired last year.

Paterson joined the UConn faculty in 1967. For 30 years, he helped set the standard for scholarly work in the history of American foreign relations, says Frank Costigliola, professor of history. "Without exaggeration, he is one of the foremost diplomatic historians in the country."

Paterson co-authored American Foreign Relations: A History, a popular diplomatic history textbook, and A People and A Nation: A History of the United States, the most widely used American history survey textbook..

His other books include On Every Front: The Making and Unmaking of the Cold War; Cold War Critics: Alternatives to American Foreign Policy in the Truman Years; and Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

Paterson, who earned his Ph.D. at the University of California-Berkeley , is a former president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. He trained dozens of graduate students, many of whom went on to tenure-track positions at universities around the country.

The symposium will feature presentations by many of Paterson's former students, and by other distinguished historians.

J. Garry Clifford, professor of political science, says the conference "Is a tribute to him, not just as a scholar, but as a person. For him, scholarship was never competition, it was always a cooperative enterprise. A lot of us have benefitted from his generosity."

A graduate student fellowship fund is being established in Paterson's name.

Faculty, students and the public are invited to the conference, at no charge. Registration is required, however, for meals and the evening reception. Contact Lisa Ferriere at (860) 486-3722 for registration information.

The program is supported by the Research Foundation, Office of the Chancellor, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of History, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Sherry Fisher

"Revisionism in U.S. Foreign Relations"
A tribute to the scholarship of Thomas G. Paterson
October 23-24, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

The program will include:

Jeffrey Bass, UConn, "Unmaking the 'New' Neutralism: The Kennedy Admnistration and the 1963 Algerian-Moroccan Conflict"

J. Garry Clifford, UConn, "Co-existing with a Cold War Revisionist: An Appreciation after 30 Years"

Javier Figueroa, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, "Revisionism in Thomas G. Paterson's Work on Cuba"

Dale T. Graden, University of Idaho, "The Brazilian Amazon Is First and Foremost Brazilian': United States-Brazilian Relations Through the Prism of Environmental Protection 1950-2000"

Mark Gilderhus, Texas Christian University, "Revisionism, Latin America, and the Cold War"

James Gormly, Washington and Jefferson College, "American Aviation and Containment"

George Herring, University of Kentucky, "Revisionism in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations"

Lee Anna Keith, Meredith College, "Revisionist History and Moral Ambivalence in Cultural Studies"

Walter LaFeber, Cornell University, "Revisionists and Revisionism during the Thomas Paterson Era"

Shane Maddock, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, "Unchained Reaction: Nuclear Proliferation and the Decline of U.S. Hegemony"

Robert McMahon, University of Florida, "Indonesia, 1958: Documenting and Interpreting a Covert Operation"

Dennis Merrill, University of Missouri, Kansas City, "The Construction of a Cold War Paradise: U.S. Tourism in Puerto Rico, 1945-1948"

Anna K. Nelson, American University, "Obsessed with Cuba: New Evidence from the Kennedy Years, 1961-1963"

Stephen G. Rabe, University of Texas at Dallas, "After the Missiles of October: John F. Kennedy and Cuba, November 1962 to November 1963"

Jay Rickman, Valdosta State University, "The Continuing Divide: Historians STILL Debate the American Use of the Atomic Bomb"

David Sheinin, Trent University, "The Latin American Leg of the Victory Lap Around the World: Building the New Dollar Diplomacy, 1986-1993"

Stephen Streeter, Wilfrid Laurier University, "A Classic CIA Covert Operation Revisited: The 1954 Intervention in Guatemala and New Archival Evidence"

William O. Walker III, Florida International University, "I Am Not a Revisionist, But ...: An Inquiry Into the Prospects of Revisionism"

Edmund S. Wehrle, UConn, "War in Manchuria: Failed American and Soviet Policy, March-May, 1946"