6 Bases during the Cold War

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This provided the U.S. access to a plethora of air and naval bases: Gibraltar,Malta, Cyprus, the Suez Canal Zone, Aden, Libya (Wheelus Air Force Base),Gan in the Maldives Islands, Mombasa, Simonstown in South Africa, Freetown,Singapore, Hong Kong, etc., added to by access to other facilities in Canada andAustralia. France’s remnant empire allowed for some U.S. access as well,particularly important in the 1950s, regarding bomber bases and communicationsfacilities in Morocco. During the period after 1945, of course, the U.S.occupied Germany and Japan, and had free access to bases all over occupiedEurope, in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Turkey. In theCentral Pacific, the U.S. took over the former Japanese League of Nations mandatesin the Caroline, Mariana and Marshall Islands, with few restrictions ontheir use for bases.In the early 1950s there was the full onset of the Cold War, the Korean War,and NSC-68 as the formalization of the containment policy. Importantly, therewas also the construction by the U.S. of a network of formal alliances, bothBases during the Cold War 95İ 2007 Robert E. Harkavymultilateral and bilateral, that formed a physical barrier around what had cometo be called the Sino-Soviet bloc after 1949, a barrier extending around Eurasiafrom Ireland and Norway around to Japan. There was NATO, CENTO (theBaghdad Pact) and SEATO, the first two hinged on Turkey, the latter two onPakistan, abetted by ANZUS and the bilateral defense pacts with Japan, SouthKorea (after 1950) and Taiwan (after 1950).3 Arms transfers and other forms ofsecurity and economic assistance underpinned all of these alliances, and withthem went a very permissive and comprehensive basing structure for the U.S., ineffect in exchange for security against the perceived menace of Soviet andChinese expansionism, both in terms of possible military attack and internal subversion.The physical structure of this basing network was neatly reflective of arimland defense posture around Eurasia à la the geopolitical formulations ofMahan and Spykman.Functions of the U.S. Cold War basing systemAs the Cold War evolved in the 1950s and 1960s, the functions of the U.S.global basing structure came to be divided along the lines of nuclear deterrenceand conventional deterrence and power projection. The latter category furthersubsumed the use of bases for direct military interventions, arms resupply duringconflict, coercive diplomacy (“gunboat diplomacy”) and “presence” (showingthe flag).4The initial use of forward bases came with the stationing of B-29 bombers inthe U.K. in the late 1940s. Following that was the stationing, in the 1950s, of B-47 “Reflex Force” bombers in the U.K., Spain and Morocco.5 Shortly after that,the B-52 bombers were introduced as the backbone of SAC, and they were allbased along the northern rim of the continental U.S., in Maine, New Hampshire,upstate New York and Michigan. But, they required tanker refueling, bases forwhich were established in Greenland (Thule), Canada (Gander), Iceland(Keflavik) and in the U.K. Additionally, numerous bases in Europe and elsewherewere designated as recovery bases for the bombers should they exit theUSSR after a bombing raid.Later in the Gulf War, forward based tactical aircraft (FBS) – F-4s, F-16s,and F-15s – were configured for nuclear weapons, based mostly in Germany, butable to mount missions from other bases in Europe, in Iceland, the Netherlands,Italy and Turkey.6 Additionally, F-111E bombers based in the U.K. weredeployed as nuclear attack aircraft that could reach into the Soviet Union.Nuclear armed attack aircraft were also based in South Korea and the Philippines,capable of reaching the USSR and China. Tanker aircraft based on Guam,Okinawa, Japan and the Philippines could also serve in relation to nuclear-armedaircraft.In the late 1950s, in response to the “missile scare,” i.e., the looming threat ofSoviet ICBM deployments ahead of similar U.S. deployments, the U.S. basedmedium-range ballistic missiles, Thor and Jupiter, in the U.K., Italy and Turkey.In Asia, Matador and Mace land-based missiles were deployed in Okinawa and96 Bases during the Cold Warİ 2007 Robert E. HarkavyPage 3Page 4
Taiwan as a deterrent vis-à-vis China and the Soviet Far East.7 And then, in the1980s, the U.S. forward deployed Pershing II and ground-launched cruise missiles(GLCMs) in several Western European states – Germany, Belgium, theNetherlands, Italy, U.K. – to counter the menace of Soviet SS-20s being targetedon Western Europe, which deployments were drawn down after the signing ofthe INF Treaty with the USSR.Nuclear-armed U.S. naval forces also made extensive use of overseas facilities.American “boomers,” submarines mounting long-range SLBMs, were longbased at Holy Loch, Scotland and Rota, Spain, in addition to Guam. Theseforward deployments allowed the U.S. to negotiate a SALT II Treaty with theUSSR that gave the latter a larger number of SSBNs, somewhat balanced out bythe U.S. having those overseas facilities that allowed for keeping relatively moreSSBNs “on station” at a given time. Finally, nuclear armed SSNs, attack submarines,whose main intended function was to hunt Soviet SSBNs, were basedoverseas at Faslane, Scotland, La Maddalena on Italy’s Sardinia and Sasebo inJapan in proximity to known major transit routes for Soviet submarines. And,lastly, U.S. carriers (CVNs) with nuclear armed aircraft and other surface shipscarrying nuclear weapons made frequent stops for replenishing at numerousoverseas ports, though that was sometimes a political problem in nuclear-phobicJapan. U.S. nuclear-armed CVNs operated out of Yokosuka in Japan, Subic Bayin the Philippines and Naples, Italy.Electronic intelligence aircraft prowled along the Soviet borders and coasts to“tickle” Soviet radars and to plan possible routes for U.S. bombers. U-2 and SR-71 surveillance aircraft were used, particularly in the case of the former up to1960, to monitor Soviet construction of ICBM missile silos and nuclear testsites. The U-2s earlier were based at Mildenhall in the U.K., Bodo in Norway,Wiesbaden in West Germany, Incirlik in Turkey, Peshawar in Pakistan andAtsugi in Japan; the SR-71s mostly in the U.K., but deployable to other bases.8Some other air and naval basing functions also related to nuclear deterrence.The U.S. had an elaborate network of P-3 Orion naval air bases in relation both tosurface and sub-surface detection of Soviet ships, with a focus on ASW.9 Aroundthe Indian Ocean littoral, P-3s were flown out of Masirah in Oman, for instance,Mogadishu in Somalia (after 1978), Singapore and Australia’s west coast.Sigonella in Sicily was used as a major P-3 base for monitoring the movements ofSoviet submarines in the Mediterranean. Other P-3 bases have been Embelzebil/Nairobi (Kenya), Tahkli (Thailand), Djibouti, earlier in the Seychelles and BandarAbbas in Iran during the Shah’s reign, Misawa and Iwakuni in Japan, Cubi Pointin the Philippines and Dakar in Senegal. Then, TACAMO aircraft based in, amongother places, Bermuda, were utilized to trawl communications wires through theocean to communicate with U.S. nuclear submarines.10Regarding conventional power projection capability, the U.S. also utilized amassive network of overseas bases, again for purposes of conventional deterrence(tripwires), arms resupply, coercive diplomacy and presence. Sometimesbut not always, these deployments involved co-location at bases utilized in relationto nuclear deterrence.Bases during the Cold War 97İ 2007 Robert E. HarkavyFirst and foremost was the long-term, stable deployment of ground forces inEurope and Asia, primarily in Germany, South Korea and Japan, but also in Italyand Belgium. That involved barracks, training grounds, maintenance depots,hospitals, etc., in relation to large-unit deployments of corps and divisions; likewise,the deployment of protective surface-to-air missiles to defend these installations.The largest was with the Seventh Army in Germany, amounting at itspeak to some 330,000 troops, mostly in Bavaria, Hesse, Baden Wurtemberg andRhineland Pfaltz, reduced to below 100,000 after the end of the Cold War. InItaly, a combat brigade was long deployed near Vicenza to bolster the Italianarmy and in relation to a possible Soviet thrust through Austria into Italy.In the Far East, the U.S., after the end of the Korean War, long deployedaround 40,000 troops in South Korea, mostly along the DMZ and around thecapital city, Seoul. There was a threat by the Carter Administration to reduce oreliminate these deployments, which did not eventuate, in response to thegrowing disparity in economic might between the two Koreas. In Japan, morethan 40,000 troops were long deployed, mostly Army and Marine units on theisland of Okinawa, co-located with extensive deployment of combat aircraft,tankers and transports. Later, after the end of the Cold War, this deploymentPage 5
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6 Bases during the Cold War

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