Oliver Stone, Hollywood director and political activist; and Peter Kuznick, long-time nuclear abolitionist and head of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, will present the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 16th Annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre.
The lecture is titled Untold History ✭ Uncertain Future. Stone and Kuznick will open their presentation with a segment from 12-part documentary film, The Untold History of the United States. Using archival footage and never-before-seen declassified materials, the film reveals under-reported events that have crucially impacted America’s history.
A discussion of the film, recent geopolitical events, and a Q & A session will follow.
Stone and Kuznick challenge the basic narrative Americans are taught in school — the notion that America has, at every turn, been on the right side of history.
David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, said of Stone and Kuznick’s work: “They explore the deeper causes and implications of important historical events and how these events still affect us today. It is a look at American history that every American citizen, every global citizen, should understand.”
According to Stone, “Generations of Americans have been taught that the United States reluctantly dropped atomic bombs at the end of World War II to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men poised to die in an invasion of Japan. The story is really more complicated, more interesting, and much more disturbing.”
Stone and Kuznick believe their work provides a useful tool in the fight for a more just, humane, democratic and equitable world.
A VIP reception that is open to the public will precede the lecture at 5:30 p.m. in the Lobero Theatre courtyard. Tickets for the reception are limited. For more information and to buy tickets, visit lobero.com or wagingpeace.org/2017-kelly-lecture, or contact Elena Nicklasson at the foundation, 965.3443.
The Annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future was established by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 2001. Frank K. Kelly was a founder and senior vice president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
During his career, Kelly was a journalist, a soldier, a Neiman Fellow, a speechwriter for President Harry Truman, assistant to the U.S. Senate majority leader, and vice president of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Past lecturers for the event include Noam Chomsky, Helen Caldicott, Dennis Kucinich and Robert Scheer.
— Sandy Jones for Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.