Postwar US strategy shifted toward small islands to avoid decolonizing mainland populations

Evidence

Barber’s solution to this perceived threat was what he called the “Strategic Island Concept.” Barber had served as an intelligence officer in Hawaii during World War II and had seen the importance of having scores of Pacific island bases in defeating Japan. Island bases near hot spots in the “Third World,” he said, would increase the nation’s ability to rapidly deploy military force wherever and whenever officials desired. His plan was to avoid traditional base sites located in populous mainland areas, where bases were vulnerable to local opposition. Instead, he wrote, “only relatively small, lightly populated islands, separated from major population masses, could be safely held under full control of the West.” — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 168

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to how the US chose island territories, linking to Hawaii’s role and anticipating the broader narrative of secure-atoll strategy over populated regions.
• SEED: An essay angle: the ‘Strategic Island Concept’ as a precursor to modern offshore basing and drone island operations.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 168