The United States and Micronesia in Free Association: A Chance To Do Better.

摘要

In one of the most intense military campaigns of World War II, the United States wrested control of the Islands of Miconesia in the Western Pacific from the Japanese. Subsequently, in 1947, the Unite Nations validated continued US occupation of the islands by declaring all of Micronesia, excepting Guam, to be the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under the trusteeship of the United States. From the inception of the trusteeship, the preponderant US interest in Micronesia has been one of national security; however, under the terms of the Trusteeship Agreement the United States also assumed manifold political, social, and economic responsibilities for the people under its stewardship. Thus, for the past 31 years, the United States has been attempting to reconcile and address the myriad, often conflicting, issues involved in its administration of the trust territory-an area and a group of peoples only vaguely familiar to most Americans.