Book Description
Many historians of U.S. foreign relations think of the post-World War II period as a time when the United States, as an anti-colonial power, advocated collective security through the United Nations and denounced territorial aggrandizement. Yet between 1945 and 1947, the United States violated its wartime rhetoric and instead sought an imperial solution to its postwar security problems in East Asia by acquiring unilateral control of the western Pacific Islands and dominating influence throughout the entire Pacific Basin. This detailed study examines American foreign policy toward the Pacific Basin from the beginning of the Truman Administration to the implementation of Containment in the summer and fall of 1947. As a case study of the Truman Administration's Early Cold War efforts, it explores pre-Containment policy in light of U.S. security concerns vis-a-vis the Pearl Harbor Syndrome.
About the Author
HAL M. FRIEDMAN is the full-time Early American History Instructor at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Michigan, where he also teaches courses in Modern American and Modern World History.
Creating an American Lake: United States Imperialism and Strategic Security in the Pacific Basin, 1945-1947, Vol. 198 FROM THE PUBLISHER
Many historians of U.S. foreign relations think of the post-World War II period as a time when the United States, as an anti-colonial power, advocated collective security through the United Nations and denounced territorial aggrandizement. Yet between 1945 and 1947, the United States violated its wartime rhetoric and instead sought an imperial solution to its postwar security problems in East Asia by acquiring unilateral control of the western Pacific Islands and dominating influence throughout the entire Pacific Basin. This detailed study examines American foreign policy toward the Pacific Basin from the beginning of the Truman Administration to the implementation of Containment in the summer and fall of 1947. As a case study of the Truman Administration's Early Cold War efforts, it explores pre-Containment policy in light of U.S. security concerns vis-a-vis the Pearl Harbor Syndrome.
SYNOPSIS
Analyzes U.S. security policy toward the Pacific Basin from the beginning of the Truman Administration in April 1945 to the implementation of the Containment Doctrine in the summer and fall of 1947.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Friedman (American history, Henry Ford Community College) first investigates the effects of Pearl Harbor and the defeats of 1941-42 on American strategic thinking about the postwar Pacific. Successive chapters address American perceptions of the Soviet Union as the major strategic threat in the Pacific and East Asia; the limitations of collective security in American policy toward the Pacific Basin; how US government documents and contemporary literature illuminate American ideas about the economic exploitation of the region; and policymakers' ideas about the imposition of American ideals and lifestyles as strategic security measures by which to ensure postwar stability. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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