Two former adversaries reflect on an incendiary time in American history. In the late 1960s and early 1970s long-simmering public unrest over the Vietnam War, social reform, and civil rights erupted into violent radical protest. When the Weather Underground Organization began a series of bombings, including strikes on the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon, as acts of war against the United States, its young members became the target of one of the largest FBI manhunts in history.
Bill Ayers, a founding member of the militant political organization also known as Weatherman, recounts the origins of the WUO, its purpose, as well as his own evolving feelings about its actions and legacy.
Don Strickland, a former FBI agent assigned to the WUO case, discussed the bureau's wide-ranging efforts to deal with the WUO's violent acts and track down the fugitive members, many of whom had become skillful in adopting aliases, forging identification, and finding hideouts. After their presentations the participants responded to audience members' questions. Bill Ayers is the author of Fugitive Days: A Memoir, published by Penguin.
Bio
William C. Ayers
William Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and founder of both the Small Schools Workshop and the Center for Youth and Society, teaches courses in interpretive and qualitative research, urban school change, and teaching and the modern predicament.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, the Bank Street College of Education, and Teachers College, Columbia University, Ayers has written extensively about social justice, democracy and education, the political and cultural contexts of schooling, and the meaning-making and ethical purposes of students and families and teachers.
Peter Earnest
Peter Earnest is the founding executive director of the International Spy Museum and a 35-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency. He served 25 years as a case officer in its Clandestine Service, primarily in Europe and the Middle East. He ran intelligence collection and covert action operations against a range of targets including Soviet Bloc representatives and Communist front organizations. At CIA headquarters, Earnest ran counterintelligence and double agent operations, working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and military intelligence. He was chief of the task force in charge of the highest-ranking Soviet defector to the U.S.
Assigned to the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence, Earnest served as an inspector with the inspector general, liaison with the U.S. Senate and director of media relations and spokesman. A member of the Senior Intelligence Service, he received the CIA's Medal of Merit and Career Intelligence Medal. He is the former president and chairman of the Board of the Association for Intelligence Officers and still serves on its board of directors.
Earnest was the primary researcher for a book on the CIA's top secret agent in Poland, A Secret Life, by New York Times reporter Ben Weiser. As International Spy Museum director, he has played a leading role in its extraordinary success as a Washington attraction. He edits the museum's book ventures and has frequently been interviewed by the major media in radio, television and the press on current intelligence issues.
Don Strickland
Former FBI agent assigned to The Weatherman Squad.