The Rise of the United States' Airfield Empire in Latin
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The Rise of the United States’ Airfield Empire in Latin America, North Africa, the Middle East and Southern Asia (1927-1945) How America’s Political Leaders Achieved Mastery over the Global Commons and created the “American Century” By Jonathan Ruano de la Haza June 1, 2012 Supervisor: Professor Eda Kranakis HIS 9999 T Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree in History University of Ottawa Department of History Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies University of Ottawa © Jonathan Ruano de la Haza, Ottawa, Canada, 2012 i Abstract The Rise of the United States’ Airfield Empire in Latin America, North Africa, the Middle East and Southern Asia (1927-1945): How America’s Political Leaders Achieved Mastery over the Global Commons and created the “American Century” Jonathan Ruano 2012 Professor Eda Kranakis Since the Second World War, the United States has mastered the global commons (the airspace and the sea lanes) with an empire of bases that encircled the earth. These U.S. military bases have not only supported military operations, but were also the foundations for American hegemony. U.S. military bases were key tools of economic domination and globalization, since their purpose was to insure that American corporations enjoyed privileged access to the world’s markets, raw materials and cheap labor. This dissertation seeks to explain the origins of the United States’ base empire, with the main focus being on its overseas aerial infrastructure. By the 1920s, Washington policymakers navigated through the currents of anti-imperialism and pacifism to create an empire that consisted of military bases, but also commercial airfields that could be converted to military use. The Franklin Roosevelt administration expanded the scope of the aerial component of this base empire by contracting Pan Am to construct airfields in the Pacific and modernize airfields in Latin America (and build new ones), Africa, the Middle East. Pan Am’s airfields officially served a commercial purpose, but they were also built with a view to being adapted for military purposes in case of hostilities with the Axis powers. As the war drew to a close, the Franklin Roosevelt administration sought to perpetuate its “new world order” by retaining military airfields (extending eastwards from the Philippines to the Azores) that made up the United States’ regional defense perimeter and commercial airfields which lay outside that perimeter, with a view to converting the latter to military use in case of an emergency. The ii commercial airfields provided discreet military cover for vital U.S. national security interests, such as the oilfields in the Middle East and to foreign markets in Southern Asia and the Far East. This global base empire continues to exist to this day. iii Acknowledgements As a PhD. candidate, I have been very fortunate to have been able to work at the University of Ottawa with Professor Eda Kranakis, my thesis supervisor. Professor Kranakis has aided me in my research not only by suggesting several sources for me to consult, but also by encouraging me to think in terms of big ideas and their potential to structure my thesis in a meaningful way. There are also several other professors who, though not directly connected with this project, have contributed to it indirectly. Professor Brian L. Villa, for example, has been one of the main inspirations for my research. His advice to me to look at the past from different angles and to never shy away from considering controversial interpretations has contributed to some of the most important insights in my research. I also want to thank Professors Schumacher and Florez- Malagon for encouraging me to examine more closely 19th century American imperialism and cultural imperialism, thereby leading me to change my perspective on U.S. foreign policy in the first half of the 20th century. I want to thank the archivists at the Franklin D. Franklin Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York; the National Archives and Records Administration (especially senior archivist Mr. Holland); and the Pan American Airways Archives at the University of Miami for their invaluable support. There are also several institutions that have made this PhD. thesis possible. I also wish to thank the Department of History and the Faculty of Graduate and Post Graduate Studies and the Pan Am Historical Foundation for their financial support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... v List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. How Airfields and Airpower Shaped the American Empire ........................... 55 The United States and the World Order ....................................................................... 60 The Quest for Foreign Markets .................................................................................... 66 The Civilizing Mission .................................................................................................. 71 Public Opinion and Extraterritoriality ......................................................................... 77 The U.S. government’s Rationale for Embracing Airpower ......................................... 80 Commercial Aviation: A Guise for Military Aviation ................................................... 84 The Scadta Airline: Catalyst for the American “Air Empire” .................................... 87 The Expansion of Pan American Airways .................................................................... 92 The New American Empire ........................................................................................... 95 Chapter 2. Context for the South Atlantic Air Route: National Security Threats in the Franklin D. Franklin Roosevelt Era (1933-45)................... 99 The White House’s Perspective on National Security ................................................ 103 The “New World Order” ............................................................................................ 108 Plans for Economic Warfare ...................................................................................... 117 Pan Am and the Trans-Pacific Route .......................................................................... 125 Rebuilding American Airpower (1933-35) ................................................................. 130 The Air Expansion Program (1938-40) ...................................................................... 133 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................... 138 Chapter 3. Aviation Diplomacy in Latin America (1939-40) ............................................ 140 Context: The War of Economic Attrition (1939-41) ................................................... 144 Context: Paradoxes in the Franklin Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy ............................... 146 The Origins of Western Hemisphere Defense ............................................................. 153 Implementing Western Hemisphere Defense: Stockpiling Raw Materials, the “Neutrality Belt,” and Pan Am’s Transatlantic Air Routes ........................................................... 163 Implementing Western Hemisphere Defense: U.S.-British Negotiations over the Caribbean and U.S.-Brazilian Negotiations ............................................................... 170 Impact of the Economic Blockade............................................................................... 181 v Chapter 4. The Emergence of a Provocative U.S. Foreign Policy: The Eastern Atlantic and Africa (mid-1940 to December 1941) ................................................ 185 Growing U.S. Belligerency in the Pacific ................................................................... 188 Growing U.S. Belligerency in the Atlantic .................................................................. 195 Background to U.S.-Vichy Relations .......................................................................... 199 U.S.-German Competition for African Airfields, June 1940-January 1941 ............... 204 U.S.-German Competition for African Airfields, February-November 1941 ............. 213 The Azores Venture (1940-41) .................................................................................... 221 The Takoradi Air Route .............................................................................................. 226 Final Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 232 Chapter 5. Engineering Work on the South Atlantic Air Route (1939-44) ..................... 236 Airpower in Modern Warfare ..................................................................................... 239 Planning Air Routes .................................................................................................... 247 Modernizing and Operating the