The American Naval Nightmare: Defending the Western Pacific, 1898-1922
Rivera, Carlos R. (1988-11-04). The American Naval Nightmare: Defending the Western Pacific, 1898-1922 (Thesis). Portland State University.
- Has attachment: File:4CMVY4ZG.pdf
Abstract: The bulk of this work deals with the "Navy's attempts between 1898 and 1921 to secure for itself the major support facilities it felt would be needed to sustain any missions overseas. The inability of the nation as a whole to spell out realistically a national policy and the Navy's role in it (beyond just responding to emergencies) rreant that eventually Naval planners would be left in frustration as to whether or not to push for their agenda, specifically, overseas naval bases, for in the late 1800's naval forces were the most effective and sorretimes only available method of advancing national interests. Three components are required to carry out successfully national policy and missions (national interests) 2: National will, Congressional support and Executive direction. Rarely were those three in synchronization and thus, like an old three legged stool, planning suffered fran one imbalance or another...
...By December, 1898 the island group of the Carolines and the remaining Marianas Islands (Guam was acquired by the United States, and had been the headquarters of the Spanish colonial government) were under effective Gerrran control, and soon became the focus of Arrerican naval fears. The war had hastened the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands (August, 1898), and along with the Philippines, provided a string of way stations from the American west coast and the Orient, part of M3.han's vision in which an isthmian canal would link the Atlantic coast with the Far East. The German control of the Carolines and M3.rianas meant that a foreign power straddled the sea lanes of corrmunication and supply between American outposts, theoretically threatening interdiction of those sea lanes. This served to dem::mstrate the need for sea po~r (naval forces) and sea control (bases) in the Western Pacific, for although the German possessions were in the Central Pacific, any outbreak of hostilities between the two nations "v\Duld force the United States Navy to sortie though a gauntlet of possibly fortified positions to relieve pressure on the Philippines and Guam...
Extra details:
DOI: 10.15760/etd.5871 MAG: 2775094510 OpenAlex: W2775094510 CorpusID: 165490864
