Living with Vladimir Putin's Russia

Ambassador Jack Matlock - Speaker
Former American Ambassador to the Soviet Union

During his 35 years in the American Foreign Service (1956-1991) Ambassador Matlock served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for European and Soviet Affairs on the National Security Council Staff from 1983 until 1986, and Ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1981 to 1983.

Before his appointment to Moscow as Ambassador, Mr. Matlock served three tours at the American Embassy in the Soviet Union. His other Foreign Service assignments were in Vienna, Munich, Accra, Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, in addition to tours in Washington as Director of Soviet Affairs in the State Department (1971-74) and as Deputy Director of the Foreign Service Institute (1979-80).

He is the author of “Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended”; “Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union”, and a handbook to the thirteen-volume Russian edition of Stalin's “Collected Works” as well as numerous articles on foreign policy, international relations, and Russian literature and history.