The Need for a Strong Caribbean Naval Force.
Abstract
The Caribbean Basin countries have long been of strategic and economic value to the United States. The military value of the Caribbean sea lines of communication (SLOC) were recognized in the late Nineteenth Century by the noted maritime strategist Alfred T. Mahan and came to fruition with a fierce U-boat campaign by Adolf Hitler during World War II. By and large, however, the United States has ignored the region until just recently. Now the U.S. must face a growing naval power projection force being built by the Soviet Union. Poor economic conditions and social immobility of the regions have resulted in an ideal setting for Communist style insurrections. Already, Cuba has become one of the most important and active Soviet surrogates in the world and Nicaragua is falling close by with strong Soviet/Cuban support. Although the United States has taken some strong economic measures in the way of foreign aid and easling trade restrictions, much more is needed to defuse the political and social unrest in all of Latin America. One means to insure regional stability and meet the growing Soviet military threat is to streamline the U.S. military command structure in the area and assign more permanent U.S. naval ships to the region. The Caribbean squadrons would be based out of Key West Florida (as is presently) and Puerto Rico. The additional ships would not only give some real and available naval power to the Southern Command but would demonstrate a firm U.S. commitment to the Caribbean area.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA156924
Entities
People
- W. H. Cahill
Organizations
- United States Army War College