This postwar study of the history of the Pacific Basin links together the interrelationships of the rim nations of east and southeast Asia, Australia, North and South America and the Pacific Islands. It looks at the various different regions and how they all interconnect. It explores major themes such as: the creation of Japan's new economic order in the region; the United States' crusades against communism, real and imagined, in Asia and Latin America; national struggles for independence against colonial rule; and the shifting patterns of conflict and co-operation between the rim states themselves.