The Report of the Van Fleet Mission as an intended blueprint for American grand strategy in the Asia-Pacific during the early Cold War

Abstract

The Van Fleet Mission's Report has long received much attention in Korea and Japan as a controversial document stating the United States' position on the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute. However, linking the Report only with Dokdo/Takeshima is missing the forest for the trees. The Van Fleet Report's genuine importance with regard to the document's intention is that it was an intended blueprint for an American grand strategy in the Asia-Pacific. Its central objective was to organize an anti-communist bloc with Japan as its core and use it to counter the expansionist tendency of Chinese communism toward the Asia-Pacific and strengthen Korea, Japan, and the Philippines military capabilities.