The International Affairs Forum returns the Milliken Auditorium on Thursday, November 12 with bestselling author Stephen Kinzer, former New York Times foreign correspondent, award-winning writer and bestselling author; Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs, Watson School of International and Public Affairs, Brown University.
In his groundbreaking new book, Boiling Point, Kinzer tells this long-hidden story of the secret 75-year American campaign that set the stage for war in Ukraine. Until the Russian invasion in 2022, few Americans could find Ukraine on a map. Once the fighting began, however, support for its cause surged. The reason was clear: Russia was the aggressor, Ukraine its victim. Yet this war did not explode out of nowhere. For seventy-five years, Moscow and Washington have fought over Ukraine. It is the most sustained covert conflict in modern history. Both sides sought to keep this story secret. They succeeded—until now.
Beginning in the refugee camps of postwar Europe, where CIA officers recruited their first Ukrainian agents, it follows generations of rebels, exiles, traitors, and covert operatives through decades of clandestine missions. Although nearly all of the guerrilla warriors that the CIA sent into Ukraine were captured or killed, it never gave up. From the late 1940s through the end of the Cold War, American leaders saw Ukrainians as their most effective weapon against Moscow. They continued to press that strategy after Ukraine’s independence and the eastward expansion of the US-dominated NATO alliance.
Richly detailed and plot-driven, Boiling Point shows how the United States made Ukraine its most important European project of the twenty-first century, culminating in the escalation that led to war. From battlefields in the Carpathians to smoke-filled offices in New York to the Olympic Games, it is full of the wild stories and improbable characters that made All the Shah’s Men a classic. This is the last great untold spy-versus-spy story of our time.
When: Thursday, November 12, 6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. program in-person and livestream
Where: Milliken Auditorium, Dennos Museum Center
Tickets: Free for students, educators, NMC faculty and staff. Open to the public. Get your tickets at tciaf.com. Advance purchase of in-person or online tickets recommended.
Book sales & signing facilitated by Artemis Books & Goods. Purchase at event or order in advance at artemisbooksandgoods.com