Dr. Bunch will discuss “The Rumsfeld-Hussein Meeting, December 1983-A Nuanced View of American Policy”

The purpose of Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld’s talks with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in December 1983 has been scrutinized and criticized by the media and in popular histories in the wake of the 1991 and 2003 conflicts between the United States and Iraq. The prevailing interpretation of this meeting is that it resulted from President Ronald Reagan’s effort to contain the power of Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini by providing support to Iraq. This talk, based on documents from the Reagan Library, suggests a more nuanced picture of this meeting, arguing that Rumsfeld’s visit to the region was not concerned with containing Iranian power, but rather with enhancing the stability of Lebanon in preparation for a withdrawal of United States forces from that country.

Dr. Bunch joined the faculty in 2006. She is working with a committee to create a Middle East Studies minor and has assisted the Ottenheimer Library in the acquisition of an extensive collection of Middle East diplomatic documents. She serves on the Faculty Senate and the college Undergraduate Research Committee, and is the faculty advisor to the Saudi Student Association.

Dr. Bunch earned a Ph.D from the University of Arkansas. She has traveled extensively in the Middle East and she speaks both Arabic and French. Her work has been supported by numerous organizations such as the John F. Kennedy Foundation, the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the American Center of Oriental Research. She is currently working on a book on Jordanian-American relations during the Cold War.

The Evenings with History series, sponsored by the University History Institute, features presentations by UALR faculty members sharing their current research. Although these talks are aimed at a general audience, each offers insight into the real workings of historical scholarship. The nationally-recognized series covers a variety of times, areas, and subjects. Many of the presentations illuminate current affairs. The format also allows for questions and discussion.

The six sessions of the 2012-2013 Evenings with History series will be on the first Tuesday of October and December of 2011, and February, March, and April, 2013. The November 2012 session will be on the second Tuesday.

This year’s meetings will be held at the Ottenheimer Auditorium in the Historic Arkansas Museum at 200 E. Third Street in Little Rock.  Historic Arkansas’s downtown location and the museum’s adjacent parking lot at Third and Cumberland make the sessions convenient and pleasant to attend.   Refreshments and an informal atmosphere encourage the interchange of ideas.  Refreshments are served at 7:00 p.m., and the talk begins at 7:30 p.m.

An individual subscription to the series, at $50 annually, includes admission to all six lectures.  A joint subscription to the series, at $90 annually, offers couples and friends a savings of $10.  A Fellow of the Institute, at $250 annually, receives admission to the six lectures plus an invitation to special presentations for Fellows only. This often includes a private evening with a noted author.

The Institute also offers a Life Membership at $1,000.

Subscribers to the series help support historical research.  The presenters donate their time, and the University History Institute uses all proceeds from the series to encourage research at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  In recent years annual Institute grants, made possible by the Evenings with History series, have made major purchases of historical research materials for UALR.  Subscriptions and donations to the Institute are tax deductible as allowed by law.