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This is Volume One of The Army Air Forces in World War II, titled Plans and Early Operations, January 1939 to August 1942, edited by Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate. The University of Chicago Press first published it in 1948, and the Office of Air Force History reprinted it in 1983. The front matter explains how the AAF historical program was set up during the war. The index covers Pacific, Atlantic and European operations, and nothing in the text concerns unidentified aerial phenomena.
“The Invaders”15 pages
T H E A I R C O R P S P R E P A R E S F O R W A R , 1 9 3 9 - 4 1 were taken in a series of inter-American agreements which followed. These agreements provided for mutual action to preserve the peace of the hemisphere, and in some instances arrangements were made with individual countries which gave US. forces an entree into stra- tegic areas normally closed to them. On 3 October 1939, American foreign ministers, meeting in Panama, adopted a declaration of neutral rights and established a safety belt 300 miles in width around the en- tire hemisphere, except off Canada and Newfoundland, already at war.61T h e neutrality zone was soon violated by European belligerents, but in July 1940 the American republics took concerted action more forceful than the Declaration of Panama. At Havana a conference of American foreign ministers made the Monroe Doctrine multilateral, agreeing that their respective governments would oppose any change in sovereignty of European colonies in the Western Hemisphere and would combat Axis attempts to undermine American institutions.62 T h e missing link in the inter-American security system was supplied on 18 August 1940 when the governments of Canada and the United States announced the establishment of a Permanent Joint Board on Defense, with equal representation from each nation, to co-ordinate defense measures for North America.63 Co-operation with friendly nations made it possible for the United States to extend greatly the Atlantic perimeter of hemisphere defense. T h e first step was made public on 3 September 1940 when President Roosevelt revealed an agreement transferring fifty over-age destroyers to Great Britain in exchange for the right to establish air and naval bases a t eight strategic points in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas6* By 2 7 March 1941, the two governments had completed negotiations which gave to the United States a 99-year lease on sites in Newfound- land, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia, Trinidad, and British G ~ i a n a . ' ~Prior to this agreement Canada had taken over some of the responsibility for garrisoning certain Caribbean islands, Bermuda, and Newfoundland.6GCo-ordination required under the new arrangement was assured by the Permanent Joint Board on Defense. In October 1940 the board, in a study on Newfoundland, had recom- mended certain specific defense measures and a division of responsi- bilities between Canada and the United A t the same time the Air Corps was conducting a survey of possible air base sites, and on the basis of these investigations four locations for Army installa- tions were chosen. It was decided to station Air Corps units at the 4 I 2 1
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