Signs, but conversations happening to exchange culture and understand each other better between the United States and the soviet union. And so, in 1959, there was this big exchange of National Exhibition. They sent their National Exhibition to new york city. In 1959. Rk city here is the exhibition booklet. As you can see on the cover, they featured sputnik. What message were they trying to send . The exhibition covered sputnik and covered of course, soviet industry, agriculture, and cultural arts. Eisenhower flew from washington for a preview tour in a lastminute decision. He and the russian delegation toured the show. All jovial despite the size of the crowd. The show is a counterpart of an american exhibition to be opened in moscow next month by mr. Nixon. Full scale models of sputnik are among the things russia is proudest of. Legitimately impressive achievements exploited to the utmost here. Not too long after that, the United States sent their National Exhibition to moscow, which was a huge hit. Over 2 million russian visitors came to the exhibition. Is a keepsake various things were handed out to the visitors, and this is a little polaroid keepsake. The american exhibition covered various topics, including polaroid technology, automobile technology, and of course, kitchen technology. We have heard a lot about the kitchen debates. Indeed. You want to talk about the kitchen debate . Clearly, what is going on during these exhibitions is this idea of which industry is better, capitalism or communism . In terms of technology. One of the big things in moscow one of the big features in moscow was an american kitchen. They are, you have the translators working with nixon Vice President nixon and nikita khrushchev. Vice president nixon escorts soviet premier khrushchev on a preview of the United States fair in moscow. The official opening of the american exposition. Counterpart to the soviet show in new york and dedicated to showcasing the High Standard of life in our country, but on this occasion, traditional diplomacy goes by and the story of the fair itself is eclipsed by a crackling exchange between sent and khrushchev. They finished off before the videotape recorders. Every aspect of the cold war and soviet american rivalry is argued in florida glorified terms. The threat of atomic warfare, diplomacy by ultimatum. Economic partners. The soviet will overtake america and then wave bye bye. [applause] both khrushchev and nixon appeared to enjoy themselves. Here is a communist spokesman dealing with a capitalist lawyer. All i can say from the way you talk and dominate the conversation, you would have made a good lawyer yourself. Is thathe culmination both nations would remain uncensored. All of these reporters here, every word you have said has been taken down, and i promise you that every word you have said will be reported in the United States, and they will see you say it on television. Language]ng foreign certainly, it will. Right. [laughter] [applause] and by the same token, everything that i say will be recorded and translated and will be carried all over the soviet union. One of those diplomats involved in this event of touring khrushchev and nixon through this exhibition was a Foreign Service officer. He actually worked for voice of america at the time. He had excellent russian skills, he was part of the and to rush part of the entourage and even had the opportunity to provide impromptu translation. He often got lost. This is a huge event. As allison mentioned, on the flight back, they inaugurated what they jokingly called the kitchen cabinet. You can see that picture you were mentioning of nixon tormenting khrushchev. Right. And they even had a password for this exclusive club. In russian, it means peace and friendship. And so, the Language Skills are so important for diplomats, you never know when you might need to pull it out. So, we have some exchange in the conversation going on in the midst of the cold war, and eventually, things start to thaw. Eventually. There is a recognition that the status quo cannot remain. During nixons president ial administration, you start to see the salt talks, strategic arms beingtion treaties discussed between the soviets and the United States. During the reagan administration, this was a high priority, as well. This piece kind of speaks to that as well. In 1987, the United States and the soviet signed the intermediate range Nuclear Forces treaty. That didnt happen so much with the number of arms but to limit how far, the range of them. Exactly. Part of the inf treaty was witnessing the illumination of certain classes of missiles. And this happened both here in the u. S. As well as an soviet territory. This piece tells a little bit about that story. It is a beautiful piece. Diplomacy is an art form. It also inspires works of art. Such as this. And so, as a result of the 1987 inf treaty in 1990, and kazakhstan in kazakhstan, a diplomat who was the chief of the arms control section at the u. S. Embassy moscow was part of the diplomatic entourage that went to kazakhstan to witness the elimination of the last of these missiles covered under the inf treaty. The missiles were laid out for display and for measurement and verification, and then of course, they entourage would go to a safe location and they were destroyed. The soviet military had observed had actually reserved some of the debris from previous elimination activity and contacted a local businessman to create these fantastic sculptures. Fantastic little sculptures. The soviets the soviets gave the sculptures to their american counterparts as a celebration of the destruction of these missiles. You can see the soviet flag, the u. S. Flag and what was once a weapon is now a beautiful piece of art. This is all happening between the u. S. And russia as far as arm control systems, but berlin, germany is still a divided city. People are angry about that. In 1961, almost overnight, a physical wall divided berlin. They had a minister there. With can only have one ambassador in a country so we had the u. S. Minister sent specifically to west berlin to cover the National Interest and protect american citizens over there. Much to everyones apprise, that wall started to come down. Katie, do you went to speak more about that particular minister . The night of november 9, 1989, the u. S. Minister to berlin, Harry Gilmore, is what was called the allied chairman and the chairmanship rotated monthly between the british, the french and the u. S. The month of november was the u. S. s turn. People started gathering at these checkpoints. Word had gotten out that supposedly the checkpoints were open. Police were not prepared for this onslaught of people, and these checkpoints were still in russian territory. There was a buffer zone between the actual checkpoint that you crossed through before you got into west berlin territory. So the Police Needed permission to cross into that sector to help out the east Berlin Police with this rush of people. Harry gilmore that this was an on the spot decision. Protocol would normally have him consult with counterparts and notify but he gave permission on the spot for the west Berlin Police to help out with the crush of people. The wall came down and not long later, the embassy was unified. This unique position of u. S. Minister to berlin was no longer needed. We have in the collection a wonderful flag, the position of u. S. Minister is a rarity. This flag was presented to Harry Gilmore at the end of his tenure as u. S. Minister to berlin. America saved the best for last with Harry Gilmore. As you can see on the image, it is an interesting flag. The great seal is in the middle. It is on a white field with blue stars surrounding the seal. A u. S. Ambassadors flag has the seal in the middle on a blue field with white stars. For further comparison, the secretary of states flag. Great seal, blue field, but four stars. One in each corner. It is a wonderful representation of this unique time in u. S. History. I think we will bring out a few more artifacts. The last segment we talked about embassies being the site of refuge, but sometimes embassies are often the site of political unrest and political attack. This piece here is a segment of the sidewalk that surrounded the former u. S. Embassy saigon and what is now the u. S. Consulate ho chi minh city. This mpiece was retrieved in 2003 as they were renovating the sidewalk and surrounding area. That particular sidewalk is a pretty interesting the city. At first glance it is just a piece of concrete. In 1968, with the vietnamese, they lost an offensive they blew a hole into the compound. They planted a whole a bomb in the whole and the forces were able to enter the courtyard. This put american diplomats in extreme danger but they were held in the courtyard and never made it into the embassy. The american diplomats inside were very brave. The kept up the line of communication and never left their post. The gentleman who retrieved that has an interesting narrative about going in 2003 and noticed they were ripping up the sidewalk, right near where the hole was blown into the embassy compound. As the gentleman who retrieved the sidewalk for us pointed out, this attack spilled out into the streets as well. There were security guards and military forces on the sidewalks and in the street as well. Items like this are called site elements. It is an interesting way to evoke a time and a place, it can tell a powerful story. Especially since the embassy no longer exists. Continuing in vietnam, that was 1968. In the early 1970s, our diplomats were at the embassy, continuing in the midst of the conflict that was occurring, doing their best to assist their military counterparts. There is a lot of political relationships that our u. S. Diplomats needed to understand which can be complicated. One, enterprising political officer thought to create a chart to be able to track who is who, who is the cousin of home . He got this piece of brown mailing paper, tech did up on the wall in his office and started with the vietnamese president , and started charting out his political family relations as well as the interrelations with his prime minister. This chart became a pretty handy tool and pretty popular among his fellow officers. When he left vietnam and came back to washington, d. C. For his next post, this chart was left for use by his colleagues. Thankfully, this survived and almost didnt. In 1975, South Vietnam completely collapsed. The American Embassy was hastily evacuated. There is the conic figure of helicopters landing on the roof. For american personnel in these bases you have to make a snap decision what to take. You are also in a helicopter. But this family chart was one of the things that an american diplomat grabbed. It was salvaged and the political officer who created it had no idea. His colleague, weeks after the evacuation, surprise to milwaukee to his office and handed this over, much to his surprise that it survived. I think it was a smart thing to do because there was such a fear of reprisals. We are happy to have this now. The crises continued in the 1970s. There is a lot going on in iran in the late 1970s, a lot of protests. In 1979, the Islamic State was created after much Political Violence and unrest. It all came to a head when the shah of iran sought asylum in the United States of america to seek medical treatment. He was suffering from cancer. President carter permitted him to come to the United States which greatly angered the leaders of iran. That anger boiled over and ultimately, one day in november 1979, the u. S. Embassy was overrun. The u. S. Diplomats who happened to be there in the building at the time were taken hostage. They were held hostage for a total of 444 days. 52 american diplomats in total. We know some thing of their treatment and it was not that great. They were blindfolded, interrogated, and beaten. We are privileged to have this cloth. This was used as a blindfold. On the economic officer robert blucher. The takeover of the embassy coincided with his first full day of the job. What a first day. On the second day, he was beaten. About a month later, he was called for interrogation and said he was line folded in a cold room for six hours. He could hear the cooking sounds of his captors rifles in the background. Very harsh treatment. This blindfold came to us through a friend of his. We know the end of the story that they were ultimately freed. When he returned to freedom, he was visiting friends and gave this blindfold to his friend as a thank you gift for hosting him. And he said, just wash it. Luckily, this friend did not and she treated it like a relic and we do consider it a treasure of the collection. There are so many stories surrounding the embassy takeover. There were some who escaped out the back door of the consulate. They ultimately became known as the kennedy and 6 canadian six. The six americans found shelter with the canadian ambassador as well as the canadian consul general john sheared and. John shearden. They were there houseguests for three months before the cia was able to successfully extricate them from the country. As you can see in the image we have a pair of fake eyeglasses. This was part of the costume given to the member of the canadian six. Her name was catherine stafford. They provided them with costumes and fake personas, and fake documents. They had to take on and memorize these cover stories to pass through the revolutionary guard at the tehran airport. These fake eyeglasses are a wonderful representation of that successful extrication. We have two sides of the story. In addition, we have items that show the end of the story, the welcome home. The 52 hostages who were released on january 21, the day after Ronald Reagans inauguration. They were showered with gifts and memorabilia. We have a button that was a gift to and swift. Ann swift. Ann was part of the two women of the 52 captives. The button celebrates their welcome home and incorporates a Yellow Ribbon. As we know the Yellow Ribbon campaign was started by some of the family members to show solidarity and it really caught hold throughout the nation. Embassies are still targets, unfortunately. In 1998, there was a surprise attack in africa. We now know that this was an al qaeda attack on the embassy in tanzania and kenya. We have a couple of items from that tragic event that are highly personalized. We really get a sense of the person and what it was like to be there during that time. Cannot imagine anything more traumatizing than your Office Building exploding. This u. S. Ambassador who was our ambassador to kenya at the time. On the morning of the attack, she was in a meeting with the kenyan minister of commerce. His office was quite close to the embassy, just across the parking lot. She and some department of commerce colleagues were upstairs at the meeting when we heard noise which we learned was a stun grenade. There were about eight people in the room at the time and most of them got up to walk to the window to see what it was about. Grenade, to bring people to the that was the purpose of the stun grenade, to bring people to the windows. I was thrown back, and was unconscious for a few minutes. The ceiling came in. I thought i was going to die. It is a feeling i will never forget. But i didnt. As i went down 21 flights of stairs with one of my department colleagues, i kept thinking, i just need to get out of the building, back to my embassy, and into the medical unit and i will be all right. It was when we exited the building and i saw the charred remains of what was once human beings, looked up and saw that my embassy was destroyed that i realized there was a medical unit to go to, and i was going to have to take charge. She was injured on her head and she very graciously has donated the suit she was wearing on that day. You can see the bloodstains that remain on that suit from the horrible morning. The Embassy Building was completely destroyed, as were some of the surrounding buildings. As embassy employees were able to go back and retrieve their parked car you can imagine the chaos of the scene. One embassy employee found this trunk of the chunk of the b uilding in the backseat of her car. It had blown to the window. In addition, ambassador bushnell gave us this personalized hard hat. After the attack, she wanted to go back and tour the site and see what happened and offer her love and sympathy to the people dealing with this. Embassy staff personalized this hard hat with the word ambassador and a gold sticker for her to wear. And when you mention the staff, it is not just americans. We have Foreign Service nationals. Their native to the company and often work there for 20 or 30 years and developed a very close relationship with the americans, and especially the ambassadors. This mutual sign of affection and appreciation that she was so severely injured, but came back the next day to show concern for the people of that nation and what a strong bond that was. Katie, why dont we bring gifts to the secretary to give gifts of appreciation to show that mutual respect. This medallion was a gift to a delegation of japanese diplomats back in 1860. This giftgiving is a wonderfully long tradition and americans absolutely took part in this tradition going back to the 19th century. Very much so. This story of opening up trade with japan is fascinating. The chinese had been forced into trading with the western powers. The japanese were concerned that they wanted to keep their own sovereignty. They begin welcoming communication with western nations and signed a treaty with the United States, similar to the 1778 treaty. The japanese signed it but then the american president had to sign it. That was the reason for the delegation. It was three highlevel samurais that came with 74 other japanese and some interpreters. Of of the entire japanese. They were wind and dine at the smithsonian and had a very elegant dinner. They werent not quite all that heavy with everything they ate because they were served rice with sugar and butter on it, and they were horrified. Nowadays you would not offer them that. It was considered to be a successful visit. And with the last visit with the president , he gave them what was a gold coin that had been engraved by a gentleman who worked at the rent who came up with the design and a number were struck to commemorate the visit. You can see the profile of president buchanan, and on the reverse commemorates the visit. It says, in commemoration of the First Embassy from japan to the United States 1860. Again, the embassy meaning meeting people, not the actual building. The secretaries of state travel. A big part of their time in office is traveling and meeting with foreign counterparts area part of those meetings and trips involve an exchange of gifts, and our secretary works closely with the offices protocol for the giving and receiving. They cant keep them. They cant keep them all the time, so the Diplomacy Center has a number of examples of gifts to secretaries of state. They are wonderful pieces and have Great Stories behind them, was a gift to secretary baker in , which was a gift to secretary baker in 1991, a gift from the mayor of bethlehem. Bethlehem is an palestinian territory and considered to be an agent city. Diplomatic relations with the arab world had been strained. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, american president s and secretaries were preoccupied with negotiating between egypt and israel which was during the carter administration. When Ronald Reagan became president and then his successor, they were focused on the palestinian conflict. This was very important that not only was it given in bethlehem in palestinian territory, it was an important shift in thinking about american foreignpolicy and how they could mediate the settlement between the israelis and palestinians. This particular box came with a personalized note to secretary baker, and it is from the mayor of bethlehem, and you can see that he writes, welcome to bethlehem. We pray that secretary of state, mr. Baker, will succeed in helping us to have peace between palestinians and israelis. It is dated 1991. Extreme violence broke out in the bosnian region and yugoslavia. It was the last gaps of the cold war. The americans were involved in the peace processes in dayton, ohio. It was a hot spot, and the secretary of state, marilyn albright, was aware of what was going on in the region. She was, and a sheet managed the response in coordination with some of her foreign minister counterparts, and she held an almost daily Conference Call with the foreign ministers, and she later termed it Conference Call diplomacy to help manage the conflict. They coordinated and worked quite well together. At the end of secretary albrights tenure in january 2000 one, she and her Conference Call diplomacy counterparts together for dinner in paris to celebrate the end of secretary albrights 10year, and she was presented with gifts tenure, and she was presented with gifts. This russian porcelain coffee set was a gift from the Russian Foreign minister. As you can see, on each of the cups is the image of albright and her foreign minister counterparts. These include igor even off of russia, robin cook of the united kingdom, hubert of france, fisher of germany, lloyd of canada, and lumbarerto of italy. They didnt stop at the faces, they dubbed this group madeleine and her dream team of foreign ministers. What is so interesting is while Madeleine Albright is the first secretary of state, this is a gender based. It is a gift to a woman as secretary of state. As visitors come to the Diplomacy Center, that will very much be a apparent. Parts of diplomatic giftgiving involves trying to figure out who the pursuit is and what they are like and what they might be interested in. At the same time, it what represents me and my country . What are the Natural Resources and arts and artisans of my country . I think the set does that magnificently. We have been building the artifact collection for many years and we are at about 7000 500 items in our collection. This collection is truly unique to the nation. There is no other institution in the nation that is solely focused on collecting diplomacy. These objects would have nowhere else to go, and would be somewhat lost to history. With the diplomacy museum, we cant really bring these stories to life through these fascinating objects and their visual appeal and the many fascinating people and events behind these objects. Also, in part of our research, outreach, we traveled around. People dont understand sometimes what the function of the state department and what do americans Service Officers do. They will learn all of the displays and objects. What is diplomacy, who does it, and why does it matter, is the key question to answer throughout every exhibition. Why is this history relevant to Everyday Americans . What are they doing today and what have they done to promote security and our National Interests this was a second of a twopart look at the collection. It you can see part one and all of American History tv programs at cspan. Org history. Studentcam 2020 competition is in full swing. Middle and High School Students are hard at work creating their short documentaries on the issues they would most like the president ial candidates to address. Take us behind the scenes and share your photos using the studentcam 2020 for a chance to win additional cash prizes. Idea . Working on we have resources to help out. We have information to guide you through the process of making a documentary. Award 100,000 in total cash prizes including a 5,000 cash prize. Entries must be uploaded and received a midnight january 20, 2020. The best advice i can give you is to not take your issue too seriously. Youre not too young to have an opinion. Make yourself heard now. 75 years ago on december 16th, 1944 dolph hiller launched a surprise counteroffensive against allied forces in the ardennes region of belgium, northeastern france and luxembourg, known as the battle of the bulge. Tell her committed more than 1000 tanks and 2000 troops to tos last nazi effort hoping recapture the port city of antwerp. Next on railamerica, tigers on 1965 film highlights the 10th armored division, known as the tiger division. Narrated by actor lorne greene, the story details the battle up to the surrender of germany in may of 1945. This is lorne greene. And what were 2, 61 u. S. Army divisions were locked in mortal combat with the enemy and the european theater of operations. This film is about one of those divisions. The 10th armored
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