Diego Garcia’s central location and lagoon made it the Navy’s top acquisition target

Evidence

In 1960, the Navy settled on Diego Garcia as its most important acquisition target. As Barber had recognized, the V-shaped island was blessed with a central location, a protected lagoon that offered one of the world’s great natural harbors, and enough land for a large airstrip. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 172

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• The US chose Diego Garcia over better-positioned Indian Ocean islands because of its isolation (similarity 0.84)
• Diego Garcia base construction destroyed reef and wildlife habitat at vast scale (similarity 0.82)
• Guam is regarded as among the world’s most important military bases. (similarity 0.81)
• The same naval officer chose both nuclear test sites and Diego Garcia (similarity 0.81)
• The base site was chosen partly because its population was deemed negligible (similarity 0.79)