Kwajalein Atoll, the Marshall Islands and American Policy in the Pacific

For centuries, the Marshall Islands have been drawn into international politics, primarily because of their central location in Oceania. After World War II they came into the American sphere as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. At the outset of the Cold War, the Marshalls were a site for nuclear tests and later for the U.S. Army's ballistic missile testing as part of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.
This book focuses on the islanders' tenacious negotiations for independence and control of their land, accomplished as the Republic of the Marshall Islands in a Compact of Free Association with the U.S. The creation of American policy in the Pacific was a struggle between the U.S. departments of the Interior and State, and the military's goals for strategic national defense, as illustrated by the case of the Army's base at Kwajalein Atoll.

List of contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments viii

Preface

Introduction

One-America Claims the Pacific

Two-National Competition in the Nineteenth Century

Three-Versailles and the Japanese Mandate

Four-World War II

Five-Truman, the United Nations and U.S. Control

Six-The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

Seven-The Congress of Micronesia

Eight-Micronesian Status Politics

Nine-Free Association

Ten-To the ­Twenty-First Century

Epilogue

Chapter Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the author

Ruth Douglas Currie is a professor emerita in the History Department, Appalachian State University. She served four years as command historian, U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command, and recently retired as a professor of history and political science at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina.

Product details

• Authors: Ruth Douglas Currie, Currie Ruth Douglas
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: from age 18
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2016
• EAN: 9781476663111
• ISBN: 978-1-4766-6311-1
• No. of pages: 236
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 12 mm
• Weight: 322 g
• Illustrations: Raster,schwarz-weiss
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, HISTORY / United States / 21st Century, HISTORY / Military / General, 20th Century, POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / Diplomacy, military history, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, HISTORY / Military / United States, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Australian & Oceanian, 21st Century, 21st century, c 2000 to c 2100, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Diplomacy, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, Oceania, Marshall Islands, Oceania / Pacific Islands, pacific theater