Covell Meyskens (Naval Postgraduate School), Koji Hirata (Monash University)

Part of the East Asia by the Book! CEAS Author Talks series, this event features the Navel Postgraduate School's Professor, Covell Meyskens, and his book, "Mao's Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China." In 1964, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made a momentous policy decision. In response to rising tensions with the United States and Soviet Union, a top-secret massive military industrial complex in the mountains of inland China was built, which the CCP hoped to keep hidden from enemy bombers. Mao named this the Third Front. Drawing on a rich collection of archival documents, memoirs, and oral interviews, Covell Meyskens provides the first history of the Third Front campaign. He shows how the militarization of Chinese industrialization linked millions of everyday lives to the global Cold War, merging global geopolitics with local change. This program also features Monash University's Koji Hirata as Discussant.