Did you know that, during the height of the Cold War, Lawrence was the center of a grass-roots campaign to establish friendships between Kansans and Soviet citizens? This exhibit spotlights the activism of Robert (Bob) Swan, Jr., a KU alumnus who advocated for peace during the age of nuclear deterrence by making Lawrence a place where ordinary Americans could meet citizens of the U.S.S.R., and even make new friends among them. Swan first arranged for a delegation of Soviet athletes to compete at the 1983 Kansas Relays before thousands of spectators. Over the next decade, he organized a series of visits focused on commemorating Soviet-American cooperation during World War II through the Elbe Alliance.

Swan’s project, which he and others describe as “citizen diplomacy,” culminated with the 1990 Meeting for Peace, in which almost three hundred Soviet delegates participated in panels on topics ranging from education, to nuclear energy, to healthcare, to agriculture. With the Soviet Union showing signs of breaking up, the Meeting for Peace anticipated a new era for the citizens of the U.S. and former U.S.S.R., in which citizen-diplomats might have breathing room to tackle challenges beyond the threat of nuclear annihilation.