The lecture was given to ACSC students, JSCSC and Def Ac staff in the Cormorant Hall.  At lunch he was joined by the DG, AVM Lock and some of the US students currently studying at JSCSC, after which the General departed by helicopter. 

The initiative for this annual exchange of military lecturers originated with Mrs Kermit Roosevelt, whose husband died while serving on active duty with the US Army in 1943.  Her ideas were set forth in correspondence to General George C Marshal dated 17 June 1944.

“My husband, Kermit Roosevelt, attempted to carry out in his own life his conviction that the development of a closer relationship between individual English and Americans, and a better understanding between the military forces of the United States and the United Kingdom would contribute in large measure to the preservation of world peace.  In view of this conviction of his, it seems appropriate . . . to set up this Memorial.”

In 1945, the US Congress enacted legislation which authorised the Kermit Roosevelt Fund and established in the War Department a Board of Trustees to implement and administer the exchange programme “for the purpose of fostering a better understanding and a closer relationship between the military forces of the United States and those of the United Kingdom by sponsoring lectures or courses of instruction”.

The initial exchange of British and American military lecturers under the auspices of the Kermit Roosevelt Fund took place in 1947, with six colleges participating, three each in England and the United States.  Since that date the lecturer exchange has taken place essentially in the original format with changes necessary only to accommodate the increase in the number of lecture venues.