Decolonization threatened the end of Western overseas military bases
Evidence
At this time of decolonization and Cold War confrontation between East and West, Barber and other officials in the growing national security bureaucracy were concerned about what would happen as colonized nations gained their independence. Postwar independence movements were vocally opposed to foreign military facilities, and U.S., British, and French bases were also increasingly criticized by the Soviet Union and the United Nations. U.S. officials were particularly worried that losing overseas bases would diminish American influence in the so-called Third World, where they predicted future military conflicts would likely take place. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 166
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
Related
- Postwar decolonization threatened to strip the U.S. of overseas bases (similarity 0.98)
- U.S. planners feared decolonization would force withdrawal of overseas bases (similarity 0.86)
- Postwar decolonization forced the military to maintain colonies under new guises via bases (similarity 0.86)
- Judgments about overseas base security value rest on prior beliefs, not evidence (similarity 0.84)
- US overseas bases make war more likely by easing military action (similarity 0.83)
- Overseas bases spawn self-perpetuating communities dependent on their continued operation (similarity 0.83)
- Dissent against the overseas base policy is dismissed as isolationism or peacenik idealism (similarity 0.83)
- Overseas bases create entrenched constituencies dependent on their continuation (similarity 0.83)
- Overseas bases generate dependent communities that resist closure (similarity 0.82)
- Base closures abroad tend to be offset by new base construction elsewhere (similarity 0.82)
- Overseas bases make war more likely by lowering its cost (similarity 0.82)
- Base infrastructure that outlives its purpose actively creates insecurity (similarity 0.82)
- New U.S. bases near rivals may create the very threats they aim to counter. (similarity 0.81)
- Offshore bases lower the threshold for launching interventionist wars (similarity 0.81)
- The reciprocal scenario of foreign bases in America is unthinkable (similarity 0.81)