Experts in the News | Miller Center

UVA experts on what they will watch for in Trump-Kim summit

UVA Today sat down with the Miller Center's Todd Sechser and Brantly Womack ahead of Monday’s summit to discuss the key points they will be looking for in any new deal and the potential impact of the summit on U.S. foreign policy.

Brantly Womack and Todd Sechser

RFK’s tragic death remembered locally, 50 years later

“He was a crucial helpmate to his brother, who helped end the Cuban Missile Crisis and push the Civil Rights Act forward, which JFK championed and [brother] Ted Kennedy also gave a speech in support of,” said Barbara Perry, director of UVa’s Miller Center. “Just think about those three brothers contributing to the landmark legislation that we still need today.”

Barbara Perry

What if Bobby Kennedy had skipped the 1968 race, as brother Teddy advised?

When Robert F. Kennedy died 50 years ago today, the victim of assassination like his brother, President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Edward Kennedy received word of the unfathomable historical repetition while completing a campaign swing through northern California. Just when they had achieved victory in the Golden State’s 1968 Democratic presidential primary, the Kennedys’ world collapsed, as it had on that horrific November day in 1963. The clan’s matriarch Rose Kennedy explained, “It seemed impossible that the same kind of disaster could befall our family twice in five years. If I had read it in fiction, I would have said it was incredible.”

Barbara Perry

What if RFK had skipped the 1968 race?

When Robert Kennedy was shot 50 years ago today, Sen. Edward Kennedy became the family's patriarch at age 36.

What D-Day means in the age of Trump

Seventy-four years ago this week, 132,000 soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy, France in the greatest amphibious and air invasion ever attempted in wartime. June 6, 1944 stands out in our collective memory as a day of enormous personal heroism and sacrifice, and it will always be a hallowed date for Americans as well as for the French people, for whom D-Day marked the start of their liberation from Nazi tyranny. In 2018, however, the D-Day story carries even more power and weight because we live in a political climate that denigrates the very sources of strength that made the D-Day invasion such a dramatic success.

William Hitchcock

Ronald Reagan and the Cold War: What Mattered Most

Scholars, like contemporary observers, continue to argue heatedly over the quality of President Ronald Reagan’s strategy, diplomacy, and leadership. This paper focuses on a fascinating paradox of his presidency: By seeking to talk to Soviet leaders and end the Cold War, Reagan helped to win it.

Melvyn Leffler