Creating an American lake : United States imperialism and strategic security in the Pacific Basin, 1945-1947 / / by Hal M. Friedman ; foreword by Dirk Anthony Ballendorf

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910971106903321
• Autore: Friedman Hal M. <1965->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Westport, Conn. : , : Praeger, , 2000; London : , : Bloomsbury Publishing, , 2024
• ISBN: 9798400633195; 9780313001710; 0313001715
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (253 p.)
• Collana: Contributions in military studies, , 0883-6884 ; ; no. 198
• Disciplina: 327.730965
• Soggetti: National security - United States; Imperialism - History - 20th century; Cold War; Pacific Islands (Trust Territory) Strategic aspects; Pacific Area Strategic aspects; Pacific Area Foreign relations United States; United States Foreign relations Pacific Area; United States Foreign relations 1945-1953
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [181]-196) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Cover -- Creating an American Lake -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- RESEARCH PATTERNS AND CONCEPTS -- SYNOPSIS -- Chapter 1 Modified Mahanism: Pearl Harbor, the Pacific War, and the Mobile Defense of the Postwar Basin -- THE PREWAR AND WARTIME CONTEXTS -- MAHANIAN OFFENSIVE-DEFENSIVE WARFARE AND THE USE OF MOBILE MILITARY FORCE IN THE POSTWAR PACIFIC -- STRATEGIC PHYSICAL COMPLEXES, STRATEGIC DENIAL, AND THE DEFENSE OF THE POSTWAR PACIFIC -- CONCLUSION -- Chapter 2 A Security Blanket for Paradise: The American Lake Effect and US Pacific Basin Security Policy in the 1940s -- BLANKETING THE PACIFIC -- THE AMBIVALENCE OF PRIORITIZATION -- CONCLUSION -- ; Chapter 3 The Bear in the Pacific? US Intelligence Perceptions of Soviet Power Projection in the Pacific Basin -- THE CONTEXT -- THE ''BEAR'' IN PARADISE? -- AN ASSESSMENT -- Chapter 4 The Limitations of Collective Security: The United States, the Great Powers, and the Pacific Basin -- INTER-ALLIED DISPUTES -- THE UN AND POSTWAR AMERICAN SECURITY IN THE PACIFIC -- STATES DIRECTLY CONCERNED -- THE PACIFIC ISLANDS AND SOVIET-AMERICAN RELATIONS -- TERRITORIAL AGGRANDIZEMENT -- CONCLUSION -- Chapter 5 Chosen Instruments and Open Doors in the Pacific: US Strategic Security and Economic Policy in the Pacific Islands -- AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND THE POSTWAR PACIFIC -- ECONOMIC SECURITY AND THE POSTWAR PACIFIC -- SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND CHOSEN INSTRUMENTS IN THE POSTWAR PACIFIC -- THE OPEN DOOR IN THE PACIFIC? -- CONCLUSION -- Chapter 6 ''Races Undesirable from a Military Point of View'': US Cultural Security and the Pacific Islands -- CULTURAL SECURITY IN THE POSTWAR PACIFIC -- MEXICANS, FILIPINOS, AND AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN THE POSTWAR PACIFIC BASIN -- CONCLUSION.; Chapter 7 ''As a Forward Bulwark of the American Way of Life'': Americanization as a Strategic Security Measure -- CONCLUSION -- Conclusion Out with the Old, in with the New? Continuities and Changes in American Pacific Policy -- Notes -- INTRODUCTION -- CHAPTER 1 -- CHAPTER 2 -- CHAPTER 3 -- CHAPTER 4 -- CHAPTER 5 -- CHAPTER 6 -- CHAPTER 7 -- CONCLUSION -- Bibliography -- PRIMARY SOURCES -- Manuscripts and Archival Records -- Microfilm Collections -- US Government Publications -- Telephone Inquiries -- Contemporary Publications -- SECONDARY SOURCES -- TERTIARY SOURCES -- Index -- About the Author.
• Sommario/riassunto: Many historians of U.S. foreign relations think of the post-World War II period as a time when the United States, as an anti-colonial power, advocated collective security through the United Nations and denounced territorial aggrandizement. Yet between 1945 and 1947, the United States violated its wartime rhetoric and instead sought an imperial solution to its postwar security problems in East Asia by acquiring unilateral control of the western Pacific Islands and dominating influence throughout the entire Pacific Basin. This detailed study examines American foreign policy from the beginning of the Truman Administration to the implementation of Containment in the summer and fall of 1947. As a case study of the Truman Administration's Early Cold War efforts, it explores pre-Containment policy in light of U.S. security concerns vis-a-vis the Pearl Harbor Syndrome. The American pursuit of a secure Pacific Basin was inconsistent at the time with its foreign policy toward other areas of the world. Thus, the consolidation of power in this region was an exception to the avowed goal of a multilateral response to the policies of the Soviet Union. This example of national or strategic security went much further than simple military control; it included the cultural assimilation of the indigenous population and the unilateral exclusion of all other powers. Analyzing traditional archival records in a new light, Friedman also investigates the persisting American notions of a Westward moving frontier that stretches beyond North American territorial bounds.