By Kami Barrett-Batchelder, LLS Associate Director
Ambassador Ken Adelman
For the past two years, Ken Adelman, Ph.D., author, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Arms Control Director for Ronald Reagan, has delivered multi-media presentations to LLS audiences giving them an up-close and personal story of his time in the White House under President Reagan. On Wednesday, December 6 at 2:30 p.m., Ambassador Adelman will once again give LLS a peek into the White House to see how Presidents made historic decisions and how incoming President-Elect Trump can learn from those decisions to become more successful in office.
I contacted Ambassador Adelman to give me his thoughts on the recent presidential election. Below is a summary from him.
“How did this happen? Will the new Administration be a Trump-ageddon? Or, a needed corrective to government gridlock and relief for the neglected?
The last Republican revolution to stun the Nation came in 1980, when Washington-outsider Ronald Reagan won 44 states and carried the Senate for his party. Lessons learned after that stunner can guide the new GOP team after this stunner. I was honored to be part of the Reagan revolution then and for the following seven years. Examining those pivotal decisions, and some by other Presidents in history, can prepare the Trump team for the pivotal decisions it will face.
These “lessons learned” will be told through stories, as we learn best through stories rather than lists of do’s and don’ts. Many of these stories are personal, based on my dozen-plus years in government. Most are fun, even funny. These stories will be enhanced with photos and videos, which make the presentation, as well as the audience, come alive.
This is fitting at FAU. Over the past three years, I’ve learned that participants in the Lifelong Learning Society are keenly curious and highly intelligent. They ask the best questions and give their own views in the most appealing manner. That’s why coming to Jupiter has become a highlight of the year for me, my wife Carol, my brother Jim and sister-in-law Ellen. Appearances at FAU are a treasured family affair.”
~Ken Adelman
Many describe Ambassador Adelman as a Renaissance man, having been not only a U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Arms Control Director for President Reagan, but also a translator for Muhammad Ali during “The Rumble in the Jungle” in Africa, a professor of Shakespeare at Georgetown University, and an author of six books, most recently the critically-acclaimed Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours that Ended the Cold War. That story, of the historic superpower summit in Iceland in 1986, is being turned into an HBO feature film starring Michael Douglas as President Reagan. Adelman graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa, majoring in philosophy and religion. He received his master’s degree in Foreign Service studies and doctorate degree in political theory from Georgetown University.
His presentations contain anecdotes, sincerity, and respect. He vividly describes the setting, the back story and the cast that took part in his stories in the White House. His insightful and colorful multi-media presentation will have you laughing and analyzing at the same time. You do not want to miss out on this lecture!
“Leadership Lessons for the New President: From the Forty-Four Before” will be held on Tuesday, December 6 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $45/members and $55 for non-members. A book signing and light reception will follow the lecture.
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What a delightful afternoon with Dr. Adelman. He relates both personal and professional anecdotes having shared time with presidential and political leaders. I have a new-found respect for President Reagan and a bit of hope for the future under President-Elect Trump. As he says, “Washington is full of monuments and monumental egos.” Surprisingly and notwithstanding the outcry from Washington, Dr. Adelman was in favor of Trump taking the call from the president of Taiwan. We will just have to wait and see what the future looks like in the coming years.