May 2012 Newsletter

April 22, 2012, Volume 2 # 16

On Tuesday, May 15, 2012, Josh Botts, Ph.D., a senior member of the Historical Division of the State Department, will present a  lecture about the most important, and clearly the most controversial, war time military conference of World War II, the famous Yalta Conference. As usual the lecture will be at the Millburn Library, and commence at 7PM.  Dr. Botts has devoted many years to studying, lecturing and writing  about this most important meeting, and he is one of the most knowledgeable State Department historians on this subject. He is intimately familiar with the background and all the documentation related to the conference.

Hundreds of books have been written about the Yalta Conference and Historians have debated for years whether Roosevelt because of his ill health, (he died exactly two months after the conference) alleged lack of preparation,  and his determination to get Russia into the war against Japan, and convince Stalin to join with the major powers in the creation of the United Nations, made too many concessions to Stalin. Dr. Botts will thoroughly review these contentions, giving the arguments on both sides of the question.
          
Lila Levinson
Ms. Levinson gave a superb lecture to our organization on April 17. About 70 people were in attendance and she sold and signed about 20 copies of her book Gated Grief. We are grateful to Ms. Levinson for traveling from Austin Texas to meet with the Book Club. We further are pleased to see the support our group is giving to the authors who travel long distances to meet with us.

The Wedemeyer Biography
John J. McLaughlin's biography of General Albert C. Wedemeyer is due for release the first week in  May. The name of the book is General Albert C. Wedemeyer, The Unsung Strategist of World War II. John will give a talk about his book on Tuesday, June 19, at 7PM.

There are no lectures during the months of July and August. For those interested in the Fall and winter Calendar for the balance of the year here it is.

Future Meetings

• September 18: Dan Petach, an authority on the Flying Tigers will present a film and lecture on this famous groups of pilots and their experience in Burma and China, under the command of the indomitable General Claire Chennault.
• October 16: Del Staecker will discuss his award winning book The Lady Gangster, about his father and his experience as a sailor on the USS Fuller, an Attack Transport ship that did a good deal more than just deliver supplies to the troops in the Pacific during World War II.  
• November 20: We will close out the lecture portion of our year with Professor J. W. Urwin of Temple University who will present a lecture on the Wake Island defenders and their experience as prisoners of War of the Japanese after the surrender of the island.

In December we will hold our annual Holiday Party at Pal's Cabin. The date not yet been set.