September 25, 2002

Strobe Talbott, former President Clinton’s architect for Russia policy and deputy secretary of state from 1994 to 2001, had an insider’s view of U.S.-Russian diplomatic relations and the tumultuous Yeltsin era. Talbot will discuss his new book "The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy” (Random House) as guest of the Kentucky Author Forum on Sept. 25, 2002, in Louisville.

Bill Keller of The New York Times says Talbott “has a cast of principals suitable for Shakespeare, or at least Rabelais: Bill Clinton, the polymath president and man of vast appetites. Boris Yeltsin, the boozing novice democrat. Vladimir Putin, the enigmatic spymaster and heir to the Kremlin. Warren Christopher. Well, never mind Warren Christopher.” Bill Clinton met with his Kremlin counterparts more often than had all the U.S. presidents from Harry Truman on. Talbott, an old Rhodes Scholar pal of Clinton’s and one of his most trusted advisers, was there at every step. Using his journalist skills, Talbott describes the stormy period of Russian-American relations firsthand, quoting Clinton’s comment “We can’t ever forget that Yeltsin drunk is better than most of the alternatives sober.”

Closed-door meetings between Clinton and Yeltsin helped shape the crucial events of the 1990s, including NATO expansion, missile defense, the near-meltdown of the Russian economy and the Balkan wars. Talbott describes the behind-the-scenes tensions as Yeltsin perilously managed personal relations with the Russian military and Parliament. “He (Yeltsin) was both a very big man and a very bad boy, a natural leader and an incurable screw-up. All this Clinton recognized, found easy to forgive and wanted others to join him in forgiving.”

A former Time columnist and Washington Bureau chief, Talbott also is the translator-editor of Nikita Khrushchev’s memoirs and the author of six books on U.S.-Soviet relations. He is the director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and will assume the presidency of the Brookings Institution later this year. In addition to his Rhodes Scholar Award to Oxford, Talbott has received the Edward Weintal Prize for Distinguished Diplomatic Reporting and the Overseas Press Club Award.

Talbott will be interviewed at the forum by David Halberstam, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and noted author. Halberstam’s most recent book is “Firehouse” (Hyperion), the story of a New York City ladder company in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. He is a past guest of the Kentucky Author Forum.

Halberstam describes Talbott’s book as follows: “Fascinating and compelling reading – this book is at once a serious political-science text and a work of high comedy. Strobe Talbott has given us a marvelous window on a rare moment of important and delicate diplomacy between the United States and Russia and, more important, those two most unlikely partners, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin.”

Wednesday, September 25, 2002

10:00 a.m. Discussion with Strobe Talbott, moderated by Charles Ziegler, chair of the Department of Political Science, open to U of L students, faculty and staff. Seats are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The event is free.

This edition of the Kentucky Author Forum is sponsored by the University of Louisville and recorded by WFPL Radio and KET-TV.

Kentucky Center for the Arts
5 Riverfront Plaza, Downtown Louisville

The evening's activities are as follows:

5:00 p.m. Hawley-Cooke Booksellers book sale and wine and cheese reception provided by Brown-Forman, Lobby (both books by Talbott and Halberstam will be available)

6:00 p.m. Interview in the Bomhard Theatre with Strobe Talbott and David Halberstam. Master of Ceremonies is Forum Editor/Book Editor Keith Runyon of The Courier-Journal

7:00 p.m. Q & A followed by book signing on Bittners' stage sets

A $16 ticket includes the above three events. A limited number of discounted tickets of $5 each is available for U of L students, faculty and staff at the KCA box office --U of L photo ID is required.

8:15 p.m. Dinner with the author, hosted by the University of Louisville, at 626 West Main, Brown-Forman Corporation's newly refurbished urban redevelopment project.

A $100 package ticket includes the above events plus dinner with Strobe Talbott. (Proceeds go to the nonprofit Kentucky Author Forum, $35 is tax-deductible.)

Tickets available at the Kentucky Center for the Arts, 502-584-7777(1-800-775-7777). In addition calls may be placed through TicketMaster at 502-361-3100.

A taped version of the event will be made available at The Louisville Free Public Library, St. Matthews/Eline Branch, 3940 Grandview Avenue, 2:00 p.m., September 27. There is no fee involved, but those interested must sign up in advance due to limited seating. Call the library directly at 574-1771 for further information.

WFPL 89.3 FM and the Kentucky Education Network (KET) will record the event for future broadcast, which will be distributed nationally to PBS affiliates.

The Kentucky Author Forum series is produced by Mary Moss Greenebaum and sponsored by the University of Louisville in cooperation with Hawley-Cooke Booksellers; Brown-Forman Corp.; Bittners of Louisville; WFPL, Louisville's NPR Station for News; The Courier-Journal; KET, the Kentucky Network; and the Kentucky Center for the Arts.

624 West Main, Second Floor
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Phone 502.589.2884
Fax 502.589.4334
email KYFORUM@aol.com