Dealing with Dictators: Forty Years of Frustration

Guest lecture by CSA Fulbright Professor Richard Millett

Richard Millett says of his lecture: “I plan to discuss the lessons learned and the problems encountered in over forty years of studying, writing about, and at times having policy involvement with various dictatorships, largely though not exclusively in Latin America. While I have only known two, Anastasio Somoza Debayle of Nicaragua and Manuel Antonio Noriega of Panama, I have known the associates and victims of many others and have experienced both the reality and aftermath of their reigns. In the process I have learned the very real constraints on their power as well as the difficulties of both domestic and foreign opposition in trying to remove them. In conclusion I will attempt to find some lessons for the present and future.”

The Center for the Study of the Americas has been granted a three-year Fulbright Chair and is delighted to welcome the first to fill the seat, Professor Richard Millett, from the University of Southern Illinois, who will be based at the Center for the academic year 2007-08.

The lecture is followed by a reception in the Faculty Club.

RICHARD L. MILLETT, a Senior Fellow at the North-South Center, previously held the Oppenheimer Chair of Modern Warfighting Strategy at the U.S. Marine Corps University. He is Professor Emeritus of History at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Dr. Millett is a member of the Executive Council of the American Committees on Foreign Relations, and Senior Advisor for Latin America to Political Risk Services. He has appeared on every major national TV network, testified before Congress on 19 occasions, and participated in election supervision in four nations. He has taught at the University of Miami, St. Louis University, the U.S. Air Force War College, and the U.S. Marine Corps University. Dr. Millett has published over 100 items in Foreign Policy, The Wilson Quarterly, Current History, the New Republic, and numerous other professional journals. His is also the author of Beyond Praetorianism: The Latin American Military in Transition.