Military bases served as bargaining chips for postwar commercial air rights

Evidence

Commercial and military planning often went hand in hand. … The Joint Chiefs likewise saw that investments in overseas bases would provide powerful bargaining chips to obtain postwar commercial air rights. In this way, military and civilian planners pursued the development of bases and air routes that could serve both goals simultaneously. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 79

Categorization

• XREF: This dual-use bargaining logic extends the theme that base decisions were never purely military — contradicts the simple ‘security only’ justification the reader is tracing.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 79