Stephen D. James Citizen Exchange Corps Records, 1961-1975

Summary Information

Description

Summary

Records of the Citizen Exchange Corps, a Soviet-American exchange program proposed and managed by Stephen D. James.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

Material is unprocessed. Please contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

This collection has no restrictions.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Stephen D. James Citizen Exchange Corps Papers; Box and Folder; Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

accn no: 150: Source of acquisition--Dan James.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Initially accessioned as "Dan James Papers"

Collection-level record describing unprocessed material made public in summer 2018 as part of the Hidden Collections initiative.

Revision Description

08/10/2020 Biographical note was written by Tanya Chebotarev. Authorities and notes updated, ksd

Biographical / Historical

Stephen D. James (1925-1998), American entrepreneur, founder of the Corps of Concerned Citizens, a nonprofit organization to promote unofficial exchanges between concerned citizens of foreign countries. He was born and raised in Minnesota. Graduated with a Master's degree in English from the University of Illinois and later received his second Master's degree (in Education) from Stanford university. He taught school in California for several years prior to moving to New York city in 1957 where he became advertisement copywriter. The cold war with the Soviet Union just started but Stephen truly believed that good will of ordinary people in both countries can and will stop it.

At the end of 1961, he proposed in mailings to editors, columnists, government officials and others that the Soviet and American governments establish a program in which millions of volunteer "peace hostages" from each country would spend from six months to two years living and working in the other country. In addition to serving as hostages, he suggested, the volunteers would advance the cause of peace simply by getting to know each other's countries. In the end, an extensive hostage exchange proved too ambitious. So James scaled back his idea, formed and began promoting the program which became the first large-scale cultural exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union. The organization aimed to open up possibilities for nonpartisan public diplomacy. It was known from 1965 as Citizen Exchange Corps and won support from the White House, the State Department and both Houses of Congress, as well as from leaders in business, religion, education and the press.

Beginning in 1965, when his wife led a delegation of 144 Americans on a three-week tour of the Soviet Union, the corps sponsored many well-publicized tours, including one by 100 women from Glassboro, N.J., in the aftermath of a summit meeting there in 1967 between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Premier Alexei Kosygin of the Soviet Union.

When James resigned as director of the corps in 1974, the organization had sponsored tours by several thousand Americans and hundreds of Soviet citizens.

The organization was renamed twice: in the mid-1980's it was known as Citizen Exchange Council and in the 1990's it adopted a name of CEC International Partners.

Stephen D. James died on January 30, 1998, of an infection during treatment for heart decease and cancer.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

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Name
Citizen Exchange Corps	CLIO Catalog	ArchiveGRID
James, Stephen D.	CLIO Catalog	ArchiveGRID
Subject
Cold War	CLIO Catalog	ArchiveGRID