Deception in war to be topic of lecture Oct. 8 by Dr. Sexton

"War of Illusion: Outfoxing the Germans and Japanese in World War II" will be the focus of a lecture Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Tusculum College.

Tusculum faculty member Dr. Donal Sexton will present the lecture that emphasizes the use of deception by the British and Americans to deceive, first, the Germans and Japanese during World War II, and then, the Soviets during the Cold War. The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in the Chalmers Conference Center in the Niswonger Commons.

During his lecture, Dr. Sexton will also deal with the causal force of technology and the shadowy subject of the institutionalization of deception by the British and American governments as a result of their wartime experience and the Cold War.

Dr. Sexton, who is Janet Anderson Lundstedt professor of history, has been at Tusculum since 1965. He was Tusculum's sole historian from about 1977 until the latter 1990s. He earned a doctorate from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1975, and earned his master's and bachelor's degrees from Michigan State University. His areas of expertise are American foreign relations and military policy, primarily in the period beginning with the Gilded Age (about the 1880s) to the present.

His research interests include the intelligence revolution of World War II and after, and military cover and deception operations during War II and the Cold War. This presentation for the lecture series is based on the introduction for his projected book, "Wars of Illusion: Allied Deceptions and Their Impact on the Axis."

Admission is $6 for the lecture, which is part of the 2002-03 performance and lecture series of Acts, Arts, Academia, a Tusculum College Arts Outreach program.

For more information about the lecture, contact Arts Outreach at 798-1620 or visit its Web site at: http://arts.tusculum.edu. Acts, Arts, Academia is supported by Dr. Sam and Mary Agnes Miller, the Society of Cicero, Campus Life, Arts Outreach, and the Tennessee Arts Commission.