April Luncheon Speakers
Carol Rollie Flynn, President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, headquartered in Philadelphia addressed the RAC on April 1st. A 30-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Ms. Flynn held senior executive positions including Director of CIA’s Leadership Academy, Director of the Office of Foreign Intelligence Relationships, Associate Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Executive Director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center, and Chief of Station in major posts in Southeast Asia and Latin America. She has extensive experience in overseas intelligence operations, security, and counterintelligence. She captioned her talk: “Lessons from a Life of Clandestine Service.”
Ms. Flynn explained that the purpose of intelligence gathering—running spies rather than spying in her case—is to avoid conflict or win unavoidable conflict. Quoting Sun Tzu (544-496 B.C.), she illustrated the early recognition of the importance having intelligence or both friends and foes. She emphasized that all intelligence is information but not all information is intelligence. Intelligence is secret, timely and focused on addressing a need. She reiterated that intelligence allows for applied expertise to strategic planning, competent decisions and effective actions and the avoidance of strategic surprises.
Ms. Flynn addressed the recruitment of third party spies exploiting money (greed), ideology, coercion (blackmail) and appeals to ego. Armed with these resources or points of leverage she explained how third parties are identified, approached and recruited. She elaborated on her role in all aspects of identifying, approaching, managing and terminating third party intelligence gathers in her role at the CIA.
David Brigham, President and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, spoke to 31 members and one guest on April 22nd at the Philadelphia Club. David introduced the HSP and explained it founding in 1824 to be an archive of documents capturing original sources of history both as it was happening and thereafter. David, who holds a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in American Civilization, looked at three areas of the HSP collection, fascinating example of which he displayed, through the lens of current events: pandemics, political polarization and protests. He illustrated a comparison of the Yellow Fever Pandemic of 1793, Spanish Flu of 1918 and Covid 2020-2022 with documents from the collection. He showed a newspaper account of the ill-informed medical advice of possibly the leading medical expert in the Americas, Dr. Benjamin Rush. He also presented documents on the role of Richard Allen and Absolem Jones in attending to the sick and the dead from Yellow Fever and how they proved the adage: “No good turn goes unpunished” as they had to publish a defense of their practices and reimbursement. The election of John Quincy Adams who garnered just 84 Electoral Votes to Andrew Jackson’s 99 provided an very early example of political division at the birth of the Nation. Finally, he showed how the Civil Rights, LGBTQ and BLM protests were merely in a continual line of protests from abolition before the Declaration of Independence through Women’s suffrage a hundred years ago. David invited The Right Angle Club members to venture one block south on 13th Street from the Philadelphia Club and visit the Historical Society of Philadelphia soon.
