Word: canals
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...lesson that most impressed itself on Roosevelt was that it had taken the Oregon, steaming at high speed, a full 67 days to complete the 14,700-mile journey around Cape Horn. American navalists and expansionists--and Roosevelt was both--began clamoring for the construction of a canal across Central America, one that, given the turbulent nature of international politics, must be completely under U.S. control. Facing large potential threats in the Atlantic and the Pacific, the U.S. had no choice but to shorten the route between the East and West coasts...
...just the misbehavior of Central and South American governments that concerned Roosevelt in this volatile region. He was also eager to prevent any foreigners from gaining a concession to build the canal that he wanted the U.S. to build. When the Colombian government turned down a proposed deal for a 100-year lease of territory in its province of Panama, the President threw his weight--and the weight of a naval landing party--in favor of one of the perennial Panamanian uprisings aimed at gaining independence from Colombia. Twelve days after Washington recognized the new nation of Panama, in November...
...month cruise around the world. Here was showing the flag, indeed. Almost a century later, that voyage is still regarded as the apotheosis of Roosevelt's belief in naval power as an instrument of national policy. The stately procession across the Pacific and then through the Indian Ocean, Suez Canal and Mediterranean before returning to the Atlantic seaboard was an impressive logistical feat, even if it confirmed to the U.S. Navy the limited endurance of the older battleships and produced a remarkable number of desertions in Australian ports. But the world public was not to know of that. A million...
...Great White Fleet's return, Roosevelt relinquished the presidency. To his successor, William Howard Taft, he had one message: Do not divide the fleet. The Mahanian principle of concentrating the main battle fleet in one theater remained in place. It would still be there in 1914 when the Panama Canal, instigated by T.R., finally opened. Only during the Second World War, when the U.S. Navy became the largest in the world, would the U.S. possess a two-ocean fleet...
...artful. The admirers of these films had to search out their treasures in specialty video stores and, for the pure experience, in ratty theaters dotting the Chinatowns of major cities. But that was part of the Hong Kong thrill. Seeing an in-his-prime Jackie Chan action film on Canal Street - where the locals chatted and noshed through the movie, and you always propped your feet on the seat in front of you, to keep the rats from breaking your concentration on the martial marvels on the screen - had the furtive kick of buying reefers from a zoot-suited dude...