ABSTRACT
In Washington the debate continued between those who wished to designate a single airline as a 'chosen instrument' (like most European nations) and those who preferred to allow private companies to compete internationally, but in other areas there was growing unanimity. It was clear that for economic and strategic reasons (as well as for national prestige) international civil aviation would be an important factor in the post-war world, and the Americans were determined to play their part. 'Whoever controls the main strategic postwar air bases, together with the technical facilities to keep them manned, will unquestionably be the world's strongest power', proclaimed one author in Fortune. 'We have no commercial bases except in the Pacific and the Caribbean; our problem, therefore, is not to restore the status quo ante but to break out . . . Shall we withdraw? Or shall we insist upon our right as a great power to fly anywhere? And whose air is it, anyway?'3
