Circling the Earth
Subtitle: United States Plans for a Postwar Overseas Military Base System, 1942-1948
Publisher: Air University Press
Published: January 2005
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 234
ISBN-13: 9781585661411
Description: In December 1942, barely a year after the United States had entered World War II, the American military establishment was already planning a postwar overseas base network. Although initially designed to support an international police force, the plans increasingly assumed a national character as the Grand Alliance dissolved into the confrontations of the Cold War. Dr. Converse not only illustrates how Army, Navy, and Air Force planners went about their work but also analyzes the numerous factors influencing the nature, extent, and location of the projected base system. These included requirements for postwar US physical and economic security, rapidly changing technology, interservice rivalries, civil-military conflicts, and reactions by other nations to the prospect of American bases near or on their soil.