American Grand Strategy in the Mediterranean during World War II

This book offers a thorough reinterpretation of US engagement with the Mediterranean during World War II.

Andrew Buchanan (Author)

9781107620384, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 August 2016

328 pages, 16 b/w illus. 2 maps
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.54 kg

'This book succeeds as a comprehensive and convincing analysis of America's grand strategy in the Mediterranean. It is worthy of study by scholars of American diplomatic history, Anglo-U.S. relations, and, of course, the Mediterranean region during the Second World War. … scholars interested in the processes of peaceful power-transitions and how new global orders are constructed will find the work useful. Buchanan's engaging writing style will also appeal to even a casual reader of Second World War history interested in something beyond purely military-centric narratives of such an important period in human history.' Alexander Salt, Canadian Military History

This book offers a thorough reinterpretation of US engagement with the Mediterranean during World War II. Andrew Buchanan argues that the United States was far from being a reluctant participant in a 'peripheral' theater, and that Washington had a major grand-strategic interest in the region. By the end of the war the Mediterranean was essentially an American lake, and the United States had substantial political and economic interests extending from North Africa, via Italy and the Balkans, to the Middle East. This book examines the military, diplomatic, and economic processes by which this hegemonic position was assembled and consolidated. It discusses the changing character of the Anglo-American alliance, the establishment of post-war spheres of influence, the nature of presidential leadership, and the common interest of all the leaders of the 'Grand Alliance' in blocking the development of potentially revolutionary movements emerging from the chaos of war, occupation, and economic breakdown.

Introduction
1. 'The president's personal policy'
2. The decision for Torch
3. Keeping Spain out of the war: Washington's appeasement of Franco
4. Torch, Darlan, and the French Maghreb
5. 'The intricacies of colonial rule'
6. 'Senior partners?'
7. 'An investment for the future'
8. The Tehran Conference and the Anglo-American struggle over the invasion of southern France
9. Helping De Gaulle get his 'talons pretty deeply dug into France'
10. Italy 'enters the postwar period'
11. Spain, Wolfram, and the 'liberal turn'
12. The Culbertson Mission and the open door
13. 'Balkan-phobia?' The United States, Yugoslavia, and Greece, 1940–5
14. 'We have become Mediterraneanites'.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]