The Carter Doctrine spawned the largest base-building effort in history

Evidence

Carter soon launched what became one of the greatest base construction efforts in history. The Middle East buildup soon approached the size and scope of the Cold War garrisoning of Western Europe and the profusion of bases built to wage wars in Korea and Vietnam. U.S. bases sprang up in Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the region to host a “Rapid Deployment Force,” which was to stand permanent guard over Middle Eastern petroleum supplies. Eventually, the Rapid Deployment Force grew into the U.S. Central Command, a geographic command like those overseeing Europe and the Pacific. The Central Command would soon lead three wars in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, plus dozens of other military operations. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 99

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Links the Rapid Deployment Force and Central Command, which would later matter for the reader’s base-deployment analysis across other chapters.

Related

• A force guarding Persian Gulf oil grew into CENTCOM which led four wars. (similarity 0.89)
• The Middle East base network persisted after its Cold War justification vanished (similarity 0.81)
• The U.S. base network exceeds any prior empire’s footprint (similarity 0.79)
• The U.S. military network has expanded geographically despite closing giant Cold War bases (similarity 0.79)