WHEN STARS AND STRIPES MET
HAMMER AND SICKLE
The Chautauqua Conferences on U.S.–Soviet
Relations, 1985–1989
Ross Mackenzie
When Stars and Stripes Met Hammer and Sickle tells the story of face-to-face citizen
diplomacy that brought together Americans and Soviets during the closing years of
the cold war. Looking specifically at five conferences held between 1985 and 1989,
Ross Mackenzie recounts the experiences of artists, diplomats, government officials,
and interested citizens who joined together for a unique mix of political debates,
artistic performances, open discussions, and socialization. Sponsored by the Chautauqua Institution, a center for arts, education, religion, and recreation in western
New York, these conferences offer a snapshot of the relationship between the United
States and the Soviet Union just before the collapse of the Soviet government and
federation in November 1989. The meetings also point to the promising future of
people-to-people diplomacy. The book both reproduces verbatim some speeches and
discussions and offers Mackenzie’s accounts of episodes that took place inside and
outside of the conferences.
Mackenzie chronicles the history of the Chautauqua Institution since its founding in 1874 and its influence on American foreign policy. He explains the traditional
Chautauqua formula that provides citizens an opportunity to meet without great
restraints on topics of discussion or interaction. Mackenzie suggests that these conferences, coming at the time of Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika, may
have been both a measure of the reforms’ success and a driving force in continuing
their momentum.
Highlighting the imaginative, wide-ranging approach employed by Chautauqua,
Mackenzie recounts the scope of topics discussed at the conferences, from nuclear
weapons, women’s issues, and global health care to American intervention in Latin
America and Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. He also identifies the cross section
of people drawn to participate, ranging from average American and Soviet citizens
to individuals of international renown, including U.S. policymakers Paul Wolfowitz
and Paul Nitze, violinist Eugene Fodor, poets Andrei Voznesensky and Yevgeny Yevtushenko, female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, musicians Grover Washington Jr.
and Tommy Cecil, and politicians Mario Cuomo and Geraldine Ferraro.
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ROSS MACKENZIE is historian
emeritus of the Chautauqua Institution and the author of Threads: A Book
of Prayers and Stories. Prior to coming
to the institute, Mackenzie taught history at Union Theological Seminary
in Virginia for twenty years.
June 2006, 224 pages, 23 illus.
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