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    Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World
    Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World
    Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World
    Audiobook13 hours

    Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World

    Written by David Vine

    Narrated by Jonathan Yen

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    American military bases encircle the globe with nearly a thousand locations in foreign lands. These bases are usually taken for granted or overlooked entirely, but in an eye-opening account, Base Nation shows that the worldwide network of bases brings with it a panoply of ills-and actually makes the nation less safe in the long run.

    As David Vine demonstrates, the overseas bases raise geopolitical tensions and provoke widespread antipathy towards the United States. They also undermine American democratic ideals, pushing the U.S. into partnerships with dictators and perpetuating a system of second-class citizenship. They breed sexual violence, destroy the environment, and damage local economies. And their financial cost is staggering: though the Pentagon underplays the numbers, Vine's accounting proves that the bill approaches $100 billion per year.

    With the U.S. withdrawing from Afghanistan and ending thirteen years of war, there is no better time to re-examine the tenets of our military strategy. Base Nation is an essential contribution to that debate.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 25, 2015
    ISBN9781494585419
    Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World
    Author

    David Vine

    David Vine is Professor of Anthropology at American University. His other books include Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World and Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia.

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    Reviews for Base Nation

    4.5/5

    38 ratings16 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Excellent Expose.
      Majority of Americans do not know what is going on under the cover of establishing American Bases for maintaining peace in the country and all over the world.
      I would recommend the Author to publish an update as second version of this book with details and information covering up to 2022.
    • 5/5
      This is an impressive book, and although Vine's perspective is clear, there's also a careful and constant effort to show the issues objectively and with an eye to what needs to be considered when talking about closing or expanding bases, changing policy, or maintaining the status quo.First, it's important to note that the research isn't just extensive, but presented clearly and without bias; Vine is open about the things which can't be known for sure, and about the biases felt on various sides of the issue. Where interviews are presented, there's an effort to read between the lines while being true to the nature of each interviewee's response, and attention paid to context and background. Importantly, there are interviews with military officials, American and foreign officials/politicians, average military men and women, and also non-military citizens of foreign countries who live around and work in American bases. At all moments, Vine goes out of his way to show multiple sides of a particular corner of the debate about American bases, and although the statistics and titles are sometimes overwhelming as a reader attempts to take them in (because the numbers and stats are, truly, astounding), everything is presented in such a way that a reader feels as if they're being shown the facts and offered a choice, rather than told what to think.In truth, the greatest failing of the book may be its title, which gives the impression that the book is far more biased and argumentative than it actually is.For me, many moments in the book were gut-wrenching, to where I literally felt sick to my stomach--and I'm not sure I can say that this happened to such an extent for any book I've read in the past. Much as I've read about history and politics, and despite the fact that have a graduate degree, much of the history surrounding American bases was new to me, and Vine presents the history in such a plain and straightforward fashion that I had a hard time not being horrified, over and over again. Certainly, other readers won't find as much to surprise them. My husband, who was a history major, was rarely even surprised by some of the things I felt a need to repeat to him; yet, I feel fairly sure that a lot of Americans know about what I did about this issue and the debate surrounding American bases, if not less. Personally, I wish every American would read this book; I'm sure not everyone would come out on the same side of the issue, which is a testament to Vine's careful work here, but the book has such import that it's hard to believe it hasn't gotten more attention, so far as I'm concerned.If you have an interest in America's bases and/or well-being, or in America's foreign policy or domestic progress, I have to think that you'd find the book worth reading. Obviously, I absolutely recommend it.
    • 4/5
      David Vine puts forth an interesting and convincing study concerning g the growing social, capital, and political costs of American military investment overseas. The United States blankets the globe with its military presence, a cumbersome relic of WWII and the Cold War. The cost of these bases is growing and it is growing unnoticed by the American population footing the bill. Vine looks at the recent history of American base culture as well as breaking down the costs of maintaining an obsolete and ineffective network of military footholds in foreign countries. Vine has put together a solid case with strong documentary evidence, access to available budget records, and on-site reporting. His arguments are solid and well-developed though at times it does feel like he is reaching somewhat to make some of his more unique critiques of base culture. His overall position is sound and hard to debate fully. The book looks over the last 60 years of American base culture with evenly distributed attention to each major development in the military foreign presence time frame. The evidence, either due to its classification or the recent developments, is weakest for the last decade but the patterns Vine identifies hold up nevertheless. A strong read that raises more questions than answers. In this case, it is a good thing and American citizens should be directing those questions to our leaders.
    • 5/5
      David Vine has crafted an indispensible study for our time. As we move further and further away from the post WWII Pax Americana, the United States continues to occupy a global network of military bases that dwarfs all other nations combined. Even with this fact, or perhaps because of it, little or no discussion of this reality occurs in our popular media. I grew up in a forward based military family and have visited many of the bases discussed in Vine's book. From Okinawa and Iwakuni in Japan, to Guam, to still numerous bases in Germany, to Western Australia, to Djibouti, and on and on US forces are forwardly deployed in a manner that purports to keep America safe. Or instead are these military installations the proof of a 21st century Imperial United States? Vine argues that the United States is somewhere in between the poles of imperial power and international cop and that neither possibility bodes well for America or the globe. Vine's research impels us as global citizens to do our part and consider America's place in the world. Where does diplomacy end and antagonism begin?
    • 4/5
      This is a difficult book to read because one does not like to learn or to be reminded that the approximately 800 American military installations outside the United States cause so much environmental damage, so much displacement of people, so much harm to the people who remain near them (and especially sexual harm), result in so much crime, support so many dubious foreign governments, do so little to improve the security of the United States, cause so much enmity toward the United States and, above all, waste so much public money. David Vine has studied the issue for years. His case against such a huge American military presence overseas is compelling in its many-faceted structure, although it is not always tightly reasoned. Concerned citizens should read the book, but no one should expect a fun read.
    • 4/5
      This is not the kind of book I normally read--I don’t usually read “issue” or current events non-fiction. It is not that I don’t care, it is just not what I prefer to read. However, I believe that David Vine’s book, Base Nation, is one of the most important books I have read and I believe it needs to be read by a lot more people.As the subtitle states, the book is about how the US military’s policy of having an extensive overseas base network is on the whole damaging to US interests. While it would be tempting to dismiss this work as just the rantings of an academic liberal, the case is rather compelling. Vine has certainly done his homework and looks at the subject from a variety of perspectives. Chapters detail the thought process for creating this network of bases, relationships with dictators, contracting abuses, questionable relationships with organized crime, environmental disasters and questionable cultural and economic impacts on host countries.There are some shortcomings in the book, including what would appear to be some cherry-picking of quotations as well as strangely placed colloquial language (which should be corrected by an editor before final publication).I am a US Navy veteran and would describe myself as being politically conservative. In my time in the Navy, I visited at least three of the overseas bases described in the book, including the island of Guam, which the author discusses in some detail. Therefore, I certainly approached this book with a skeptical eye and was still convinced that this is an area that warrants some detailed national soul-searching as well as some careful oversight by the federal government’s own accountability office.Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book with the expectation that I would provide an honest review.
    • 5/5
      I wish that all voting Americans and especially members of Congress were required to read this book. That's not going to happen, but since you are reading this I highly recommend you pick this book up. It boggles the mind how much our country spends on the Defense budget. Our military spends just a bit less than the rest of the world combined, or for a more concrete comparison, our country has more aircraft carriers than the rest of the world combined. A large portion of that military budget goes towards the building and maintenance of military posts, bases, depots and ports world-wide. If you wonder why the Europeans can afford public transportation, free college, and universal health care, you need look no further than their smaller military spending. The author, David Vine, does not argue for a drastic reduction in the US military. The purpose of this book is to highlight the costs, including fiscally, environmentally, politically, and psychologically, of having military bases all over the globe. If we are to maintain our status as the sole super power some overseas bases will remain necessary, but does the US military really need military posts and depots in 49 of the 54 African nations? With sea and air lift technologies the time difference in troop deployment from the eastern United States as opposed to Italy is negligible. The book is divided into five parts. The first part deals with how the US got so many overseas bases. The trend began almost at the founding of the republic, but goes completely out of control during and after WWII. The second part deals with the environmental and political impacts of overseas bases. Evidently locals tend to resent the presence of our bases in their countries. As a thought experiment pretend Russia or China decided to locate an Infantry division in your state. What do you imagine the reaction would be? Would it matter if the troops were friendly and provided some jobs? The third part deals with labor and personal costs. Overseas deployments can be tough on American families, but the effects are much tougher on local female populations. The fourth part of the book deals with the price of overseas bases in monetary terms. The cost to taxpayers for these places is CONSIDERABLE. My eyes glazed over reading about a few billion here and a hundred million there. It's tough to get a grip on that much money being spent to defend the Germans from the Soviet threat. The final and fifth part of the book deals with trends for the future for overseas bases. The author tries to strike a hopeful note with American and foreign opposition to superfluous bases increasing. The author, an anthropologist by training, writes in a even-handed journalistic style eschewing silly academic terms like "agency". In the afterword he acknowledges that while it's impossible for a person to be entirely objective, he tried his damnedest. I would have to agree. Some conservatives may have the knee jerk reaction that this is crypto-commie book. That would be unfortunate, because this is a not a liberal vs conservative issue. If you don't care about the environmental impact, you may care that you have to pay higher taxes to fund a military bases all the way over in Djibouti.
    • 4/5
      Base Nation (double meaning entirely intended, I'm sure) reveals the huge extent of U.S. military presence overseas. The base referenced range from the veritable American cities inserted into the German, Italian and other national landscapes to the "lily pads", defined as small supply depots, training centers or other placements that can be used as forward presence in various parts of the world without attracting the attention and protests of larger bases. This book appears to be extremely well researched with footnoted references and a list of websites for further information. VIne presents evidence that maintaining a huge military establishment overseas has been costly in many ways. It is very expensive to build, supply and maintain the large bases. Many contracts are awarded on a no-bid basis and even ones that go to American companies often profit only the overseas branches of those companies. Getting and keeping permission for bases has involved the U.S. with corrupt and repressive regimes even as we claim to be protecting or spreading democracy. Bases also contribute to environmental damage with wild areas being used as firing ranges or weapons test sites. Native peoples have been driven off their land with inadequate compensation and the culture of areas around major bases corrupted by the entertainment and sex districts that inevitable grow up in an area filled with young, single men. I could go on, but the book is too complex to merely summarize. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in American politics, economics or foreign policy.
    • 5/5
      Vine gets even the small details right, no easy task when trying to describe the expense, extent and harms done to our nation and to other nations by the U.S. military's extensive network of bases abroad. He is fair and tries to voice all perspectives on bases but he pulls no punches. Some of the controversies he treats concern bases and base expansions or relocations of which I have firsthand knowledge, like the Gangjeong naval base under construction in South Korea and the Futenma relocation issue. Sadly, I also have firsthand knowledge of rapes committed by U.S. ,military personnel abroad, and in particular the 1995 case in which three US Marines kidnapped and raped a 14 year-old Okinawan schoolgirl. Vine treats these fairly and relates them accurately. His book is a very complete guide to the overall development, extent, and problems associated with American military bases in other countries. Vine strives to be fair, but it is difficult to read his book attentively and still support the unknown number, in excess of 700, of US military bases overseas. This is an excellent introduction, and Vine's notes and sources will give anyone interested in learning more first class reading in the literature.
    • 5/5
      A thought-provoking examination of US military bases overseas. A recent partial solution to problems raised is low-profile "lily pads", mini-bases spread throughout the world, although with their own problems. The military has built 50 lily pads in 15 years and plans more. Author David Vine questions the value of overseas bases, including lily pads, especially with current capabilities in transportation and an end to the Cold War. Numerous "holy crap!" moments like how one contractor, KBR, allegedly hauled ice for soldier consumption in unsanitized containers previously used as temporary morgues. Or the food provider that sued the Pentagon over a contract which went to a firm that underbid them by $1.2 million (who has the chutzpah to sue over a low bid when you didn't submit it?). As an ex-GI who served at a number of posts overseas, I found the observations of especial interest. Very disquieting. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      In the last presidential election cycle republican candidate Ron Paul talked about foreign policy thus---that it should be about 1. diplomacy and 2. trade. He suggested that we close down (at least most of) our overseas bases and bring our troops back home. For me--it was the most interesting idea that any republican presidential candidate came up with in that whole election cycle......and which now brings us to David Vine's book. I can only imagine all the hours of research that went into this but what it boils down to is what it costs in terms of not only lives lost--but the corruption necessary to keep this dream of an American empire alive and that is pretty much what all these overseas bases are meant to build--an American empire. The cost is not in just the billions/trillions of dollars that could be better spent modernizing our own infrastructure or providing free university education or universal health care (like many western democracies have been doing for decades) but also in those lives lost (and not just American) and all the destruction that comes with it that is not leaving us a more peaceful planet but one in which the United States is looked at as an enemy by hundreds of millions of people. Vine's book documents our history of overseas adventure--and in particular the post WWII buildup of a military bureaucracy and the parasitic military industrial complex that feeds off of corruption and which would pretty much turn the nation they are supposed to protect into a third world of broken down infrastructure and second rate educational system and a third rate health care system--and do it without blinking an eye.
    • 5/5
      For 14 years the author studied the issues in this book. And thereafter spent 6 years working on this book. He states on the back of the Title Page: "The author will donate all proceeds from the book's royalties to nonprofit organizations serving military veterans, their families, and other victims of war and violence". There is no doubt that the author deeply regards the issues covered in this book. He has produced a very lucid & succinct coverage of the issues. The book is a quick read despite its 406 pages. [I started out underlining important sentences and paragraphs and soon found myself underlining a good third of the text !] There are 49 pages of extensive footnotes, and 6 pages of "Online Resources". I highly recommend this book and concur with all the other 4 reviews herein of this book.
    • 4/5
      If I like the title of the book, "Base Nation", its sub-title "How U.S. Military bases abroad harm America and the world" is both a bit long and somewhat conclusory in this assertion. Is this subtitle chosen by the publisher to entice you to read the book and see for yourself the research presented? I was surprised by the number of U.S. "bases" advanced as 800. It is in part because David Vine comes up with a broad definition of what is a base that may lead to more astonishment...7 bases in the Netherlands? Is it to cultivate bulbs for the floral décor of the rest of the bases? One understands better when the Author describes a base as any permanent structure that may have been used by the military. It seems bases creation, which was never a monopoly of the United States (think "Beau Geste"...or read "Asterix the Gaul) is on the rise worldwide. Mr. Vine also indicates that 500,000.00 Americans inhabit these bases which started when President F.D.R. took over their leases from the U.K. during WWII. Are they costly both in dollar terms and in relation to their effectiveness? Early examples of US history, from El Alamo to Fort Laramie, show that bases achieved various degrees of success. This subject is absorbing, not only for the American public but also for the entire world. Indeed very worth the interest shown by Mr. Vine who is a good story teller.
    • 5/5
      Mr. David Vine in his book Base Nation shows very convincingly how it costs more than $100 billion each year to maintain approximately 800 military installations spread throughout the world. I was and am still to a degree of the thinking who will say that the price is well worth the cost. However, Mr Vine in his book very effectively argues that the true costs of all those bases includes a great deal more than what is in the United States military budget. Originally meant to protect American security at the close of World War II, David Vine shows clearly how both the reasoning behind the rise of U.S. military bases abroad and their implementation is directly opposed to many closely held American values and ideals. The author also clearly shows how the United States military used a series of forced evacuations, expulsions, and evictions that devastated whole societies all across the Pacific, Latin America, and beyond, echoing the forced expulsions of American Indians in our quest for Manifest Destiny. The powers that be have successfully swept aside and made to disappear many horrible deeds and actions in the conducting of World War II, but according to David Vine, the continuing to maintain U.S. military bases around the world doesn't make any sense in a post–9/11 world. I am and will always support the United States Military in its quest to remain the Global Super Power but have to question after reading Base Nation are we not less safe and secure than if these bases weren’t around the world?
    • 4/5
      Lest anyone think, based on the title, that this is an extremist a ti-military screed, take my word for it that it is not. The majority of topics being railed against here are waste, crime, corruption, shady contractors and questionable decisionmaking by people seemingly more interested in justifying their budgets than anything else. That being said, there are a couple of sections that will not be news to anyone who has ever been in the military or lived on a base, abroad or otherwise.I was already aware of some of the things covered in this book, such as the American military's willing association with Italian organized crime during the invasion of Italy in World War II, but not the extent of them. I did not know, for instance, that some criminal groups, especially the Camorra, were still deeply connected to construction on American military bases and that this situation has been allowed to continue for years. Other things I knew nothing about - like the forced mass relocation of people from Diego Garcia, which was appalling, or the variety of bad treatment that people on Guam and other American possessions in the Pacific have to endure. The author rightly points out that most Americans do not really think about Guam or any of our other Pacific island possessions not named Hawaii.The author comes into this book wanting to make some strong arguments - that the constellation of bases worldwide does not make the US safer, that it wreaks havoc on just about everything it touches, that it has a dirty and unsavory history, and that it's massively expensive with little oversight. He provides lots of information to back up said arguments - interviews with people from Italy to Okinawa, quotes from numerous government and military reports, numbers and figures from other reports, and other things.The book does have a few weak points, I think, for a general audience. The chapter on "militarized masculinity" sticks out - it seems like trying to settle the question of whether or not military training creates and instills an entirely new perception of masculinity, or whether it distills and refines something that's already there, needs to be covered in a different book. The chapter on prostitution around bases is much better and seems more critical to his ideas about military bases and the harmful effects they can have on foreign countries.The final chapter contains a number of the author's ideas on what Congress, the Pentagon, and everyone else should do to deal with the myriad problems produced by having and supporting a huge amount of bases all over the planet. I agree with some and don't agree with others.I get the impression that this book is at least partially a compendium of previously written articles that were assembled for publication. If that is the case, it would explain why the book has a tendency to jump from topic to topic and country to country - the individual chapters mostly appear to be solid as discrete entities (although the chapter about on-base life appears to be solely focused on Army bases, since it does not seem he spent time on Marine Corps, Navy or Air Force bases), but there usually isn't much to tie the different chapters together easily.
    • 4/5
      Numbing, endless atrocitiesBecause of government and military/industrial secrecy, it is not common knowledge that the American military maintains more than 800 bases outside the USA. Considering there are only 200 or so countries in the world, and a good number of them are enemies of the USA, that is a frightening number. It gets more frightening as David Vine describes them, their effect on the locals, their draining of vast pools of tax dollars, and their often irrational rationale for existing. Basically, the military wants to grab as much territory as it can, and once it has a foothold, it is loath to give anything back, even if it is of no military use.The main tool it uses seems to be scope creep. The military will tell Congress it only wants a small installation, very inexpensive, with few personnel. But once built, it expands and gets added to ad infinitum. Vine says construction spending is out of control. The military maintains 170 golf courses, and offers all kinds of admittedly socialistic benefits that soldiers and their families dote on. This includes pay premiums, housing, healthcare, and shipping personal vehicles around the world free, along with all their belongings,It also maintains dictators and criminals. By placing bases in their countries, they imply a level of stability and longevity the locals might not appreciate, what Vine calls “a pattern of U.S. support for violence and repression.” The same people we say we don’t like are compromising our military with these deals. US bases actually make the world more dangerous, Vine says. One of the more offensive situations is in Honduras, where the massive Satos-Cano Airbase does not officially exist. The Honduran constitution forbids foreign troops. When President Zelaya came up with idea of making it a civilian airport as well, the military cited US law that forbids employing tax dollars for civilian programs. So US law trumped the Honduran constitution. Anyway, we/they got rid of Zelaya. Today, all US personnel in Honduras are required to deny the existence of any military facility there, with a straight face. The Philippine constitution says the same thing, and although they managed to get the US out of the country in the 90s, the military is back in Subic Bay and Clark Airforce Base anyway.The military is also sloppy, polluting at will, damaging ecosystems irreparably, and walking away from its messes. US troops in war zones produce an average 9-12 pounds of trash a day, compared for example, to less than two for native Okinawans, whose island US bases totally dominate. It also condones, permits and sometimes promotes prostitution as a no cost perk for soldiers. And since bases are not subject to American law, and often not local law either, there seems to be a constant flow of rapes, abuse, thefts and abandonment by US troops. There is a very sad record of soldiers breaking into homes and taking girls, for example.What is becoming better known is the sorry state of profiteers. The top ten vendors to the military overseas are all accused of massive fraud, in the billions. Yet the military continues to give them more business and more responsibility. Vine cites a case where security teams are hired to protect cooks who are hired to feed the security teams.The new overseas base strategy is called lily pads – small bases everywhere, so troops and equipment can hop safely from place to place. The newest command, Africom, is busy setting up lily pads all over Africa. But so many African nations are offended by the thought of American bases, Africom itself is based in Europe. Its chief refuses to save money basing in the US. Vine says for many, costs simply aren’t part of the decision-making process.Base Nation is beyond comprehensive; it is exhaustive. Vine spent years researching. He crisscrossed the globe visiting bases. He interviewed people until the military stopped letting him leaf through directories. He clearly wants this stinging rebuke of military comportment to be, shall we say, bulletproof.The book is weakest when Vine prescribes foreign policy. That is scope creep on his part. He can dream as much as he wants, but it detracts from the high impact he has built with the sickening facts themselves.David Wineberg