General Michael Hayden, former director of NSA and CIA, speaks at Cold War Museum

On March 19^th, General Michael Hayden, the former Director of both the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), gave the third address in CWM’s Presentation Series, CIA and NSA: A View from the Top.  Many of General Hayden’s comments were connected to his recent New York Times-bestselling book Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror.  

A very knowledgeable and enthusiastic sellout audience of 132 followed the talk with interesting questions, which was to be expected, as many were retired CIA officers.  General Hayden was very gracious throughout, including in fulfilling many requests for photos with him, and later signing copies of his book which he donated to the Museum.  He also took the time to come briefly to the Museum, despite a need to get home to deal with a family concern, and said that he would visit again for fuller tour.

Old Bust Head brewery, next door to the Museum, hosted this fundraising event for CWM on their production floor and provided great cooperation with us for it, including providing a $7 ticket for credit towards their excellent draft beer as part of the event ticket.  We expect to continue working with both the Vint Hill Winery and the brewery to host coming Presentation Series events.

The next of those, on May 21^st and which will also be at the brewery, is Eyewitness as the Wall Falls: A Fateful Week in Berlin.  Col. Jim Gray (USAF Ret.) will give us a gripping day-by-day oral and visual account of his week in Berlin while the Wall slowly became more and more permeable as he crossed the border repeatedly over that time.  He will also take us into the thinking of people on both sides as much as possible, at a time when no one knew how this would turn out, and whether this would provoke a violent response from the Soviets.  For further information, please see CWM’s posting on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eyewitness-as-the-wall-falls-a-fateful-week-in-berlin-tickets-32595553177.  (If you are interested, you may want to purchase tickets soon, as all three of the previous presentations sold out weeks in advance of the event.)