Small Dots, Large Strategic Areas: Us Interests in the South Pacific

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Small Dots, Large Strategic Areas: Us Interests in the South Pacific
By Charles Edel
April 03, 2018

The United States used to think regularly about the islands of the South Pacific. On her tour of the region in 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt had a message for Americans troops stretched out across the Pacific Islands. “Every day”, she told them, Franklin Roosevelt “goes down to the map room in the White House and notes on the maps where you are and what you are doing”.

The previous year, FDR had pointed to the hundreds of islands in the South Pacific that “appear only as small dots on most maps”. But, lest anyone misjudge their importance, he declared that “they cover a large strategic area”.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/04/03/us_interests_in_the_south_pacific_113275.html