How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

The proliferation of American military bases around the world presented a set of unique challenges and opportunities. Some of the American bases were on small islands in the Pacific, but others were in large urban environments like Liverpool in Britain. Officially, the US “offered protection and usually funds in exchange for the right to plan its outposts” (355). As a result, these bases also contributed to the local economy and “came into frequent contact with foreigners” (355). Not everyone supported them. The British public protested against “the logic of the Cold War” in 1958 at Trafalgar Square “in the heart of NATO country” (356).

Liverpool also gave birth to the Beatles. On the one hand, the city benefitted economically from this proximity while the US disseminated cultural hegemony like American artists’ records “that no one else had access to” (358). On the other, John Lennon criticized these bases and their nuclear armaments, with “Those who lived in the shadow of the bases both resent[ing] them and buil[ding] their lives around them, vacillating between protest and participation” (359).

Japan was in a similar situation by hosting American bases after its humiliation in WWII. Japan underwent an incredible postwar transformation economically and culturally.