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ALUMNI PROFILE

Promoting Peace and Cooperation

In a world filled with political tension, with major schisms between international leaders and their volatile policies, Tom Harrold ’66 wants to remind people of peacemakers and great leaders of the past. His decision to bring together the three heads of state involved in the 1989 destruction of the Berlin Wall, the restoration of a unified Germany and the institution of democracy in the majority of Eastern Europe could not have come at a more appropriate time.

Tom Harrold '66 (right) presents an award at The Unification Conference he helped organize in Atlanta in October. Joining him are (from left) former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former United States President George H.W. Bush and conference moderator Tom Brokaw of NBC News.

Harrold resolved in November 2001 to invite former United States President George H.W. Bush, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to The Unification Conference, which commemorated their contributions to the peaceful resolution of the Cold War friction in Berlin. The conference’s date — October 3, 2003 — marked the 14th anniversary of the fall of the wall and the 13th anniversary of the German reunification. The conference was held in Atlanta, Harrold’s hometown and the base of the German American Chamber of Commerce, at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Harrold is a partner at the Atlanta-based international firm Miller & Martin, which was one of the conference’s major sponsors. He heads the firm’s international practice group and has traveled and worked in Europe and Asia for the past two decades. Harrold also is a member of the German American Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors. His daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Virginia Ratchford, is an assistant professor at P&S.

The inspiration for the conference came from many of Harrold’s experiences. Having witnessed firsthand the decline of Eastern Europe under the Soviet regime, Harrold was profoundly affected by the razing of the Berlin Wall. His interest in the three leading figures of the event was sparked by Condoleezza Rice’s book, Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft (Harvard University Press, 1996), co-authored with Philip Zelikow, in which the current national security adviser discusses her experiences as a special adviser and liaison for George H.W. Bush to Kohl and Gorbachev. “The world should be reminded of what these men did while they’re alive, and not read it in their obituaries,” Harrold stated.

Recent antagonism and crucial decisions by President George W. Bush, German Chancellor Gerhart Shroeder and other European leaders made Harrold realize that there was no better time to remember the peaceful resolutions of past conflicts, and reinforced the need to reestablish strong trans-Atlantic relations.
Business leaders from the United States and German firms, as well as several distinguished current and former U.S. politicians, gathered at the conference, bringing the attendance to more than 1,500. A portion of the event’s proceedings were donated to the International University Bremen, a private, multi-national university in Germany. Organizing this conference and follow-up events was no small feat, but Harrold skillfully used his connections and Columbia friendships. One of the harder tasks was convincing renowned NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw to moderate. Brokaw helmed NBC’s live broadcast at the Brandenburg Gate the night the wall came down and was the first Western journalist to interview Gorbachev afterward. In order to sway the busy, and reluctant, anchor, Harrold appealed to a good friend, Marc Kusnetz ’66, a producer at NBC, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. “It was terrific [to get Brokaw], because he knows — and is respected by — these guys,” Harrold said.

The opening of the event consisted of a short film put together from footage of the Berlin Wall and newsreels from the ’60s to the ’80s, kindly offered to the organizers by Brokaw. The moving presentation was set to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Afterward, Bush, Kohl and Gorbachev offered formal remarks on their memories of the tense negotiations and their views of the future of European-American relations. The program’s closing remarks were given by James A. Baker III, U.S. secretary of state under George H.W. Bush.

Following the conference, the three leaders visited the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. The dignitaries participated in a brief service honoring King’s memory and legacy, hosted by his widow, Coretta Scott King. This part of the program was significant for Harrold, who has been involved with the American civil rights movement throughout his life. The day concluded with a reception and dinner honoring Kohl and Gorbachev, hosted by Governor Sonny Perdue (R-Ga.) and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

German and American businesses, including Lufthansa, Porsche, BMW, Siemens, Coca-Cola and UPS, sponsored the conference to underscore the importance of business relations between the U.S. and Europe. Nineteen TV stations from the United States., Germany and other European countries covered the event, and German television broadcast live coverage of the discussion among Bush, Kohl and Gorbachev.

Harrold noted that one of the greatest things about the conference was having the three leaders, who kept in touch after leaving office, together again. He said it was amazing “to watch the interaction and [hear them telling] stories and jokes in conversations. They were so glad to have a chance to be back together, and who knows, it may be the last time they will be able to do so.”

Masha Volynsky ’06, who was born in Russia, studies East-Central European history and Czech culture and language. She is an editorial assistant and contributing photographer for Columbia College Today.

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