On February 25, 2011, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave a speech at the military academy at West Point, New York. The speech was a farewell address to the cadets, since the secretary plans on retiring from his post sometime later this year. Gates had led the Pentagon since late 2006. He played a key role in the troop surges in both Iraq and Afghanistan. During his presentation, Gates commented on a number of issues, including the need for the U.S. Army hierarchy to advance the careers of innovative, non-traditional officers. Continue Reading »
A Return to the Pacific Islands: Robert Gates and America’s Asian Military Posture
Mapping the Upper Missouri Country
In the early and middle nineteenth century, Europeans and European-Americans referred to the Upper Missouri drainage basin as the Upper Missouri Country. The Upper Missouri Country included all the land drained by the Missouri River itself and its tributaries north and west of the Platte-Missouri confluence. In the nineteenth century, the Upper Missouri Country never appeared on an official government map as a distinct territory. Rather, the Upper Missouri Country became a folk geographical and environmental unit. In other words, it was a geographical and environmental entity created and perpetuated by commoners, such as fur trappers, fur traders, Indian agents, and steamboat crewmen who lived and worked in the area. The closest this region ever Continue Reading »
The Convincing Case Against Gavin’s Point Dam
Gavin’s Point Dam lies athwart the Missouri River a few miles northwest of the town of Yankton, South Dakota. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the dam in the 1950s as part of the Pick-Sloan Plan for Missouri River Development. The primary architect of the Pick-Sloan Plan, Colonel (and later General) Lewis A. Pick claimed that the plan’s dams and channelization works would bestow wealth, security from floods, and social stability upon the residents of the Missouri Valley. Continue Reading »
