A “who’s who” of scholars and intelligence experts will gather Aug. 31-Sept. 2 for the third annual Raleigh International Spy Conference at the N.C. Museum of History.

The theme for the 2005 event is “Old Spies, New Threats.” Topics will include a comparison of claims made by Sen. Joseph McCarthy to newly available declassified information, the influence of the Left on Hollywood activists, an analysis of the decline of the Communist Party U.S.A. from 1930 to 1945, the emerging danger of Chinese espionage in the United States, the part played by American communist agents in establishing new computer and microelectronic technology for the Soviets, and the latest in new data from the Venona files and other formerly classified sources.

The conference is presented by Bernie Reeves, editor and publisher of Raleigh’s Metro Magazine, and the N.C. Museum of History.

According to a press release by the state Department of Cultural Resources, speakers and their subjects for the conference will be:

* Ronald Radosh — Keynote speaker and coauthor of The Rosenberg File and the newly released Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony’s Long Romance With the Left;

* Harvey Klehr — Coauthor of In Denial: Historians, Communism and Espionage, on the failure of historians to confront new evidence about Soviet espionage in the United States;

* John Earl Haynes — Coauthor of In Denial and the series Annals of Communism by Yale University Press, on the damage caused by Soviet manipulation of the Communist Party U.S.A. from the 1930s to 1945;

* I.C. Smith — Author of Inside: A Top G-Man Exposes Spies, Lies and Bureaucratic Bungling Inside the FBI, on Chinese espionage in the United States;

* Nigel West — Author of Venona: The Greatest Secret of the Cold War, on the latest revelations of Soviet espionage;

* Steve Usdin — Author of the new book Engineering Communism: How Two Americans Spied for Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley, on the story of two Rosenberg spy-ring members who fled to the Soviet Union to help build a city dedicated to microelectronics and computing.

“We have seen enrollment increase each year as word has spread around the world that we put on a first-class event with top-flight speakers here in Raleigh,” Reeves said. “In year one, we examined espionage in the Cold War up to today’s intelligence environment; year two we presented experts on the subject of intelligence and terrorism; and this year we cover the current intellectual debate raging around the effort of ‘revisionists’ to deny the new evidence available about the Cold War side by side with the new threat of Chinese espionage.”

The conference fee is $250 per registrant. Reduced registration is $175 for seniors (55 or over) and $145 for educators, students, and the intelligence community. The fee includes all sessions, the keynote address and a ticket for an evening gala Sept. 1. Additional gala tickets are available to conference attendees for $30.

For registration information, access www.raleighspyconference.com, call Brooke Eidenmiller at 919-807-7917 or e-mail [email protected]. Hotel information is available also at www.raleighspyconference.com.