PORT ANGELES — Michael Casella-Blackburn, Peninsula College history professor will offer a lecture and reading focusing on his latest book, “Diplomatic Black Hole: Conspiracy and Political Fear in Mid-20th Century America,” on Thursday.
Casella-Blackburn will speak at 12:35 p.m. in the Little Theater on the Peninsula College Port Angeles campus, at 1502 E. Laudisen Blvd., during Studium Generale. Admission is free. His lecture also can be viewed on Zoom at https://pencol-edu.zoom.us/j/89779530051. The meeting ID is 897 7953 0051.
“The use of political fear and conspiracy can work wonders to ensure a certain foreign policy or direction the nation should go, but what about the consequences of half-truths and distortions to get what you want?” Casella-Blackburn asks.
“In the 1940s and 1950s, a powerful group, called the China Lobby not only pushed to ‘save’ China from Communism, but also encouraged confrontation with the Soviet Union, pushing to the brink of nuclear war. The consequences were many needless wars and deaths, and an order to the world many hoped to change.”
Cassella-Blackburn joined the Peninsula College faculty in 2003 as a history professor. He received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University, and his latest field of study is Sino-Soviet-American relations.
In 2004, Praeger published his book, “The Donkey, the Carrot and the Club: William C. Bullitt and Soviet American Relations, 1917-1948.”
In 2018, Mellon published his “Radical Anti-Communism in Postwar America, 1945-1950: William C. Bullitt and the Case for Saving China.”
Cassella-Blackburn lives in Port Townsend with his wife, Lynne.
