Presented here are selected proceedings of the Colloquium on Contemporary History, a conference series sponsored by the Naval Historical Center from 1989 to 1998. During those years, the Center published five of the colloquium proceedings in booklet form. Now, for the first time, thanks to the dedicated efforts of Commander William Scullion, USNR, of Naval Reserve Volunteer Training Unit 0615, Ms. Kathleen Lloyd, NHC Webmaster, Wade Wyckoff, and the other members of the Website committee, papers from all eleven conferences are available.

The goal of the Colloquium program was to promote the study of post-World War II national security issues by providing a forum for the exchange of new interpretations, approaches, and information. Another object was to foster the establishment and nourishment of lasting professional contacts among naval and military historians, political scientists, service members, and others interested in the momentous events and developments of the Cold War.

The conferences routinely brought together former members of the U.S. Armed Forces who had participated in the wars, crises, and other activities of the postwar era and preeminent scholars studying the political-military, diplomatic, economic, technological, and social aspects of the period. Admiral James L. Holloway III, USN (Ret.), Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret.), the late Colonel Harry G. Summers, USA (Ret.), and other influential figures of modern American history shared insights with renowned scholars D. Clayton James, Thomas Hone, Raymond L. Garthoff, Lawrence S. Kaplan, David A. Rosenberg, and professional historians from each of the armed services' historical offices.

• Seminar 1 (1989) -- A Time of Change: National Strategy in the Early Postwar Era
• Seminar 2 (1990) -- Caribbean Tempest: The Dominican Republic Intervention of 1965
• Seminar 3 (1990) -- A New Equation: Chinese Intervention into the Korean War
• Seminar 4 (1991) -- Command and Control of Air Operations in the Vietnam War
• Seminar 5 (1991) -- Gearing Up for Victory: American Military and Industrial Mobilization in World War II
• Seminar 6 (1991) -- Stalin's Cold War Military Machine: A New Evaluation
• Seminar 7 (1992) -- A New Look at the Cuban Missile Crisis
• Seminar 8 (1993) -- Inter-Allied Naval Relations and the Birth of NATO
• Seminar 9 (1994) -- "More Bang for the Buck:" U.S. Nuclear Strategy and Missile Development, 1945-1965 
• Seminar 10 (1996) -- Conflict and Cooperation: The U.S. and Soviet Navies in the Cold War
• Seminar 11 (1998) -- Tet: The Turning Point in Vietnam

25 September 2003