International: Whose Pacific?

This week, at Lake Success, the U.S. deposited its bid for sole trusteeship of the former Japanese Pacific mandates. The Carolines, Marshalls, and Mariannas were only dots on a world map, but control of them could assure control of the whole western Pacific. The U.S. proposed a "strategic area" zone, where it could draw the curtains if it wanted to. Unstressed were two highly pertinent facts: 1) the U.S. was in possession; and 2) the U.S. could veto any unwelcome counterschemes.

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