ABSTRACT
When compared to its position at the close of World War II, the Pacific Basin, by the mid-1980s, has been transformed beyond recognition. The real gap on the West Pacific rim is Vietnam, which confronts America’s memory with its most sensitive and emotional experience and which remains of great strategic importance. For the United States, the China policy is probably the one which remains most subject to further definition. Although only militarily important through its specific ties with the United States, but economically a colossus in its own right, Japan remains a key element in the Pacific Basin. Chinese foreign policy is inspired by the overriding goal of containing the spread of Soviet influence towards the Pacific. Americans and their allies will have to muster sufficient military and political forces to counter the threat implied by the Soviet strategy. The Pacific is an area where the United States is determined to hold on to its influence.
