Cohen and Woodward to Discuss Watergate at UMaine Friday: Woodward Set for Cohen Lecture
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward will visit the University of Maine on Friday, Oct. 5. Former U.S. Senator and Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen will join Woodward for a 2 p.m. forum where they will discuss the 1970s Watergate scandal and its implications for American politics and society. At 7 p.m. that same day, Woodward will present a William S. Cohen Lecture, “State of Denial: The Inside Story on the War in Iraq.” Cohen will introduce Woodward at the evening event.
As a Washington Post reporter, Woodward and his colleague Carl Bernstein led coverage that brought Watergate events to public attention. Cohen was a member of the House Judiciary Committee investigating the matter as part of presidential impeachment proceedings.
Woodward, described by CBS News’ Bob Schieffer as “the best reporter of our time,” has won nearly every American journalism award. He is the author or co-author of 11 best-selling non-fiction books, more than any other contemporary American writer. His most recent book, “State of Denial,” examines the Bush administration’s management of the war in Iraq.
Both Friday events are set for UMaine’s Hauck Auditorium, which seats 500. There are no remaining tickets for either event. Past UMaine events of this nature have been held at the Maine Center for the Arts, but that facility is closed for renovations.
Maine television journalist and UMaine graduate Don Carrigan will host the 2 p.m. event, a William S. Cohen Papers Forum presentation, organized by UMaine’s Fogler Library.
The Cohen Lecture, a function of UMaine’s William S. Cohen Center for International Policy and Commerce, is the sixth since the series began in 1997. Cohen delivered the first lecture in the series in March of 1998. The other Cohen lecturers were Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in October 1999, retired U.S. Senator and former astronaut John Glenn in 2001, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 2003, and CBS correspondent Dan Rather in 2005.
Cohen, a Bangor native, donated the papers chronicling his Congressional career to UMaine in 1997. In 2001, he donated his papers from his four years serving in President Clinton’s cabinet. Fogler Library maintains that archive, which is serves as a vital source for scholars studying American politics and government in the latter part of the 20th century.
Friday’s events are part of UMaine’s tenth anniversary celebration of Cohen’s original donation.
Cohen and Woodward will be available to news reporters at approximately 3:45 p.m. in Fogler Library, following the afternoon event.