James Billington
| James Billington link (Academic) | |
|---|---|
| File:James Billington.jpg | |
| Born | James Hadley Billington June 1, 1929 Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | 30 September 2015 |
Cause of death | pneumonia |
| Nationality | US |
| Alma mater | Princeton University, Oxford University/Balliol College |
| Mentors | Isaiah Berlin |
US academic and specialist on Russia who spoke on Prospects For The Former Soviet Republics at the 1992 Bilderberg. | |
James "Jim" Hadley Billington was a spooky US academic. He spoke on Prospects For The Former Soviet Republics at the 1992 Bilderberg.
Education
Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Billington was educated in Philadelphia-area public schools. He was class valedictorian at both Lower Merion High School and Princeton University, where he graduated with highest honors and an A.B. in history in 1950 after completing a senior thesis on the Russian philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev.[1] Three years later, he took his doctorate in Russian history from Balliol College of the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar and student of the deep state operative Isaiah Berlin.[2][3] Since this was at the height of the Cold War, the study field is conspicuously spooky.
Career
Following service with the U.S. Army and the Office of National Estimates, he taught history at Harvard University from 1957 to 1962 and subsequently at Princeton University, where he was a professor of history from 1964 to 1974.[2][3]
He was part of a group of Princeton professors who held regular secret meetings with CIA director Allan Dulles[4] In 1962 Allen Dulles wrote him a letter, calling him "Dear Jim", asking him for help in writing his book on "communism in action".[5]
From 1973 to 1987, Billington was director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. As director, he founded the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the center, and seven other new programs.[6][7] He worked closely with Senator Henry Jackson "based on shared views and assumptions about the Soviet Union".[8]
Billington was a longtime member of the editorial advisory boards of Foreign Affairs and Theology Today and a member of the Fulbright Program's Foreign Scholarship Board (1971-76), as its chairman (1973-1975).[9]
Billington was sworn in as the Librarian of Congress on September 14, 1987, nominated by president Ronald Reagan, a post he held until 2015.[10][11]
He held a lecture for the Henry M. Jackson Society in 1998.[8]
References
- ↑ http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp014q77fs52g
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/obituaries/james-billington-dead.html
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://www.loc.gov/item/n80020417/james-h-billington-1929/
- ↑ https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00806R000200910002-7.pdf From the article it is not clear if some of the meetings happened after Dulles was still CIA director
- ↑ https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp80m01009a000300420043-4
- ↑ https://www.wilsoncenter.org/about-15
- ↑ https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/the-wilson-center-mourns-the-loss-former-director-james-billington
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 https://hmjackson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/The-Nature-of-the-Russian-Transformation-Billington.pdf
- ↑ https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-15-104/?loclr=twloc
- ↑ https://paw.princeton.edu/article/lives-james-billington-50
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150612130348/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/us/library-of-congress-chief-james-hadley-billington-leaving-after-nearly-3-decades.html