History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Staff, Joint Chiefs of (2019). History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 5. Washington, DC: Independently Published. ISBN 978-1-6995-2512-8.
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Abstract: See "Safeguarding US Interests in Micronesia," page 166...
"...Concurrently with sorting out the future status of US bases in the Philippines, the Joint Chiefs found themselves facing a similar situation with respect to Microne- sia, a vast expanse in the Central Pacific encompassing some 2,100 islands, which the United States had administered as a “strategic trusteeship” of the United Nations in 1947. Since then these islands, known collectively as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), had provided facilities for nuclear weapons testing (Bikini and Eniwe- tok), ballistic missile testing (Kwajalein), intermittent military training, and monitoring and surveillance functions. Following the reversion of Okinawa to Japan and the US withdrawal from Vietnam, the Joint Chiefs eyed bases in Micronesia for possible fall- back positions, but largely gave up the idea owing to lack of interest on the part of the Services, limited funding for development, and emerging autonomy movements among the native islanders. Under growing pressure to find an alternative to the trusteeship arrangement, the United States had pursued negotiations with local representatives off and on since the late 1960s, but without significant success until the conclusion in 1975 of a “covenant” establishing a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, making them administratively separate from the rest of the TTPI and giving the United States long-term air and naval leases to facilities on Tinian and Saipan.109 At the outset of the Carter administration, the future of the rest of Micronesia was still in doubt..."
Extra details:
DOI: 10.21236/ada614272 MAG: 233045191 CorpusID: 150794239 OpenAlex: W233045191
