The Future of the Pacific

Coming back from the Oriental sea frontier of the U.S., Artemus L. ("Di") Gates, ace in World War I and now Assistant Secretary of Navy for Air, said when he stopped off at Pearl Harbor: "We can never go back to prewar status. We have to keep permanent bases in the Marianas. Those islands . . . [should be] another Pearl Harbor . . . another Pearl Harbor 3,500 miles west of this place here."

Di Gates's proposal has the tacit backing of the Navy because it goes to the heart of future peace in the Pacific. As long as the U.S. undertakes to guarantee the independence of the Philippines and as far as the U.S. becomes responsible for preventing future Japanese aggression, the use of these islands as U.S. bases is a necessity.

Guam, Tinian and Saipan can be converted into vast airfields from which U.S. bombers can sweep the whole quadrant of sea from the southern coast of China to Japan itself.

The Filipinos, soon due to receive their independence, expect to provide the U.S. with bases in exchange for protection, but they are not eager to have Manila turned into another Singapore. Actually, neither Manila Bay nor Subic Bay would be quite satisfactory, because they are on the wrong side of the island, can be entered only from the South China Sea. Leyte Bay would be better, but it is in the heart of the typhoon belt.

Artemus Gates and the Navy know that, as a backstop for the Philippines, the Marianas will be vital to the preservation of a Pax Americana in the Pacific.

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