The more U.S. and allied military power is based on and along these island chains, the more readily China can be contained in the western Pacific.
Thirty years ago, as the post–Cold War era dawned, the United States formally transferred control of the U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay to the Philippine government. The Washington Post reported on Nov. 24, 1992, that the transfer ended 94 years of U.S. military presence in the archipelago. The previous year saw American air forces depart from Clark Air Base. The United States seized the Philippines from Spain after its victory in the Spanish–American War in 1898. But with a new Cold War brewing in the western Pacific, Kyodo News reports that the U.S. Navy will likely return to Subic Bay as part of a U.S.–Philippines Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
