The statecraft of John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill, with its emphasis upon standing up to dictators and forestalling the threat of nuclear war, has become relevant once more following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The lessons of the 1930s and the 1960s, rather than being of academic interest, have become fearsomely relevant. Joel Nelson’s new book “Kennedy’s Only Hero” tells the story of John F. Kennedy’s fascination with Winston Churchill and shows how, as President, Kennedy adapted Churchill’s campaign against appeasement to combat the threat of the Soviet Union. Drawing lessons from this history, Nelson will discuss Churchill’s strategy, how Kennedy adapted it and succeeded, and how it can be used again in this new age of peril.
Friday, October 30 I 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Featured Speaker: Joel Nelson (Historian and Author of “Kennedy’s Only Hero”)
Joel Nelson is a British writer and historian. He has worked as an advisor to the Secretary of State for International Development, an editor at Foreign Affairs, and a Director of European Policy at an AI think tank in Washington, D.C. He has a first-class honors degree in History from the University of Oxford, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and he was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard. Kennedy’s Only Hero is his first
book.
Featured Moderator: Lee Pollock (Historian and Board Director, The International Churchill Society)
Lee Pollock is an award-winning historian, writer, and public speaker on the life of Winston Churchill. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New Criterion, and other publications, and he has been featured on CBS, the BBC, and numerous media outlets in the U.S. and Britain. Lee has spoken about Winston Churchill at venues ranging from the U.S. Congress, the Pentagon and the Supreme Court to leading universities, museums, and non-profit institutions.
He is a Director and Senior Advisor to the Board of The International Churchill Society and previously served as its Executive Director. Lee is a Fellow of the National Churchill Museum and a recipient of the Churchill Society’s prestigious Chartwell Award. He is editor of “Winston S. Churchill on Public Speaking” and the author of “Action This Day: Adventures with Winston Churchill.”
