"The environmental consequences of the US military presence from World War II through the end of the US war in Vietnam. Oceans and deserts, jungles and plains, mountains and rivers, monsoons and blizzards, fertile grounds and diseased lands; all have shaped how strategy and technology has been deployed and developed, and all have supported unexpected victories and decimated even the best-laid plans. Conversely, warfare and militarization have shaped the environment, scarring landscapes, accelerating the global spread of disease, unbalancing ecosystems, and contributing to climate change. Reflecting on the inextricable, reciprocal, and often surprising relationship between the natural world and human warfare, these essays offer a new perspective on power, knowledge, and the environment in US military history. The history of US military engagement in the Pacific powerfully demonstrates the profound and diverse impacts that regions extraordinarily diverse environments have wrought on warfare. US military action has also had profound impacts in the Pacific, from the nuclear weapons testing programs of the Cold War to the use of chemical defoliants in Vietnam. The contributors to this volume consider how the physical environments of the Pacific shaped the process and outcome of battles and wars, and discuss the effect warfare and other military actions had on these physical environments"-- Provided by publisher."The natural environment has always shaped human warfare.

This volume, focused on the actions of the U.S. military in the Pacific from World War II through the end of the U.S. war in Vietnam, addresses both the material and ideational consequences of those actions on Pacific environments and, in turn, the reciprocal impact of Pacific environments on military thought and action in the region. Covering 52 percent of the Earths surface and including 60 percent of the worlds population, this vast geographic expanse contains a range of environments, from Arctic to tropical, rainforests to tundras, volcanic islands to lush tropical "paradises," places densely inhabited and empty of human settlement, and ocean depths to mountain heights. In these varied environments, the United States fought the major wars of the twentieth century, from World War II forward. The environmental consequences of the US military presence in the Pacific have been profound.

They include the outbreak of disease (particularly malaria during World War II); the dropping of nuclear bombs on two cities in Japan in August 1945; the testing of even more powerful nuclear weapons in South Pacific islands during the Cold War; and the use of 13 million gallons of chemical defoliants in Vietnam between 1961 and 1971"-- Provided by publisher.