Charles DeBenedetti ( 1943 - 1987 )

Charles Debenedetti was a Professor of History at the University of Toledo from 1968 until his unfortunate death in 1987. He wrote three books and lectured throughout the country in his lifetime.

His invaluable knowledge in the antiwar movement was perhaps the most substantial in the world. In his career, he put in a lot of effort into the Council of Peace Research and History (CPRH). He was a quiet and strong character who provided much warmth and humor.

He made national news in 1982 when he stumbled across papers which were previously considered top secret at the Lyndon Bairnes Johnson Presidential Library. In those paper there was evidence that there were no links to communism in the antiwar movement, a statement in which the late President Johnson refused to accept. So important was this achievement that he was granted US$70,000 by the Social Science Research Councilfor a project entitled "Elite Dissent and U.S. Foreign Policymaking: Vietnam as a Case Study."

Professor DeBenedetti died of a brain tumor on 27 January 1987. In his memory, the Vietnam Antiwar Movement Conference was held on 4 to 5 May 1990 in Toledo, Ohio.

His antiwar efforts have been so widely recognised to an extent that the Charles DeBenedetti Prize in Peace History was established. It is given to authors of excellent pieces of documentations on peace history written in English.