The United States planned its postwar base network before Pearl Harbor.

Evidence

Roosevelt and others saw that the United States would have to exert its power through increasingly subtle and discreet means: the installation of bases as well as periodic displays of military might to keep as much of the world as possible within the rules of an economic and political system favorable to the United States. In 1970, a Senate committee found that “by the mid-1960s, the United States was firmly committed to more than forty-three nations by treaty and agreement and had some 375 major foreign military bases and 3,000 minor military facilities spread all over the world, virtually surrounding the Soviet Union and communist China.” As the late geographer Neil Smith explains, “global economic access without colonies” was the postwar grand strategy, with “necessary bases around the globe both to protect global economic interests and to restrain any future military belligerence.” Alongside U.S. economic and political might, the base network became a major and lasting mechanism of U.S. power, allowing control and influence over swaths of the earth vastly disproportionate to the land actually occupied. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 96 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Postwar US power substituted a global base network for direct colonial control — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 96; US overseas bases extend an ancient imperial strategy of encircling domination; Alfred Thayer Mahan’s doctrine made bases central to U.S. naval power. (+1 more)

Related

• Postwar US power substituted a global base network for direct colonial control (similarity 0.92)
• The destroyers-for-bases deal transformed the US into a global military power. (similarity 0.89)
• Bases served a grand strategy of global economic access without colonies. (similarity 0.87)
• Roosevelt planned a permanent postwar global base network before Pearl Harbor (similarity 0.86)
• Postwar decolonization forced the military to maintain colonies under new guises via bases (similarity 0.86)
• Overseas bases reveal America’s permanent war footing and militarized economy (similarity 0.83)
• Postwar US planners saw the war as empire-building and fused national with global security (similarity 0.83)
• Postwar US military global reach exceeded that of any prior empire (similarity 0.83)
• The U.S. base network exceeds any prior empire’s footprint (similarity 0.83)
• By 1900 the U.S. had an overseas base network rivaling European colonial powers (similarity 0.82)
• The U.S. holds more foreign bases than any empire in history (similarity 0.81)
• Modest base acreage nonetheless gave the U.S. global reach (similarity 0.79)
• The U.S. military network has expanded geographically despite closing giant Cold War bases (similarity 0.79)
• Analyzing overseas bases reveals America’s economy runs on continuous war preparations. (similarity 0.79)
• The global base network predates and exceeds any empire’s military footprint in history (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Postwar US power substituted a global base network for direct colonial control #expands (0.70) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 96
• Alfred Thayer Mahan’s doctrine made bases central to U.S. naval power. #corroborates (0.60)
• US overseas bases extend an ancient imperial strategy of encircling domination #expands (0.50)