Word: guam
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...tiny (210 sq. mi.), windy, rocky island called Guam was acquired by the U. S. in 1898 as part of its Spanish conquest. With the liberation of the Philippine Commonwealth, it will become the easternmost U. S. possession, 3,300 mi. beyond Hawaii, only 1,500 mi. from Manila. Regardless of the Philippines' status as a trade protectorate (which Franklin Roosevelt has recommended extending beyond 1946 to 1960), the Navy has pictured Guam, with its potentially fine harbor of Apra, as a likely Pacific outpost. If heavily fortified it would move the U. S. first line of Pacific defense...
Opposition to authorizing improvement of Guam's facilities for seaplanes and small naval craft was hung on two main pegs by Congressmen who, whether or not they had thought it all the way through, were eloquent on their favorite objections...
...Improvement" of Guam would, in the present state of U. S.-Japan relations, be tantamount to fortification of Guam. It would be a provocative gesture even if excused by Japan's alleged fortification of islands in the absorbed mandate groups (Caroline and Marshall)-and particularly when viewed in connection with the British desire to control Japan's approach to the Netherlands Indies and British Malaya (oil, coal, rubber, food). More provocative, Guam is only 1,356 miles from Yokohama...
...defense of Guam, Republican Representative Maas of Minnesota cried: "We want the world to know that we intend to defend every inch of American soil anywhere, at any time, from anybody." Chairman May of the Military Affairs Committee joined in and shouted: "Americans must take their stand for or against this country. The American frontier is where the Stars & Stripes...
...question was finally put in an amendment by New Jersey's Sutphin, who usually speaks for Assistant Secretary of the Navy Edison (TIME, Feb. 20). Republican Leader Joe Martin shrewdly held his forces in hand until he could combine them with 64 anti-Guam Democrats. The vote was 205 to 168 against Guam, and then 368 to 4 in favor of the other eleven bases. Republican Adman Bruce Barton, unable to control himself: "Guam, Guam with the Wind...