In his newest memoir, “Assignment Russia: Becoming a Foreign Correspondent in the Crucible of the Cold War,” Marvin Kalb takes readers back to his first days as a journalist, and what also were the first days of broadcast news.

Kalb's remarkable first years as a journalist, 1957 to 1961, also encompassed a pivotal point in world history in which a worried West watched a once seemingly monolithic Communist bloc of Soviet Russia and Communist China split into two competing forces. Kalb found himself assigned as Moscow correspondent of CBS News just as the U2 incident—the downing of a U.S. spy plane over Russian territory—unfolded.

Kalb is the classic example of an American kid who made it and made it big because of his talent and because his first years as a journalist coincided with a whole new way of bringing news immediately to the public. “Assignment Russia” is, Kalb says, his opportunity to pay his country back.

On April 27, acclaimed journalist and correspondent Kalb will be joined by former national evening news anchor and correspondent Dan Rather to reminisce about the decades Kalb spent as a foreign correspondent covering the most powerful leaders in the world. The conversation will provide insights for covering news in changing times, which is increasingly important as technological advances and social media outlets change the way that we deliver information.

We're honored to host Kalb in a virtual format to share his charming personal story as well as his sharp eyewitness account of an era in journalism and global diplomacy that we are not likely to see again. 

Order the book here. 

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Speakers: 
Marvin Kalb, journalist and author
Dan Rather, former national evening news anchor and journalist

Hosts:
Michael Abramowitz, president of Freedom House
John R. Allen, president of the Brookings Institution
Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times
Susan B. Glasser, staff writer at The New Yorker
Albert Hunt, columnist and former Washington bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal
Andrea Mitchell, American television journalist, anchor, and commentator for NBC News

Contact:
Catherine Hanley 
[email protected]