Columbus State’s Hallock Lecture Features Expert on Iran

March 5, 2013

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A Pentagon historian who’s an expert on Mideast defense issues will discuss “America’s Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 11 at Columbus State University’s Cunningham Center.

The speech, by David B. Crist, is part of CSU’s Col. Richard R. Hallock Lecture Series. The public is invited to attend the free lecture in the Cunningham Center’s Blanchard Hall.

Crist is a senior historian for the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff and a special advisor to the U.S. government. He is also a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank focused on United States foreign policy in the Middle East.

Recognized as a Middle East scholar and an expert on Iran and defense issues, Crist has focused on the history of America's relations with the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution. He is a frequent adviser to senior government and military officials on the Middle East. Crist has written and spoken extensively on contemporary military history and has produced numerous studies for the U.S. government examining current operations in Iraq and the Persian Gulf. He is the author of The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran and Gulf of Conflict: A History of U.S.-Iranian Confrontation at Sea .

Crist holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia and a master's and doctorate in Middle Eastern history from Florida State University.

A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, Crist served with a light armored reconnaissance battalion during Operation Desert Storm and, after 2001, with Special Operations Forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Most recently, he served three years with U.S. Special Operations Command. He is currently assigned to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and America’s Security Affairs.

Crist’s lecture, made possible by a gift from the Richard R. Hallock Foundation, is coordinated by Columbus State’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration. Hallock was a much-decorated paratrooper in World War II, a personal aide for intelligence to Gen. Lucius D. Clay, who oversaw the post-war occupation of Berlin, and the youngest major to be a battalion commander in Korea.

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Editors: High-resolution original photo