Reluctant nation

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"Reluctant Nation deals with the vital period in modern history when the Second World War spread into the Pacific, engulfing the European empires and dragging in the United States."--BOOK JACKET. "The present political geography of the Pacific was established during these years as the Allies fought Japan, while jostling among themselves for post-war dominance of the region. Britain fought a limited war in the Pacific as she sought to contain the political fallout from the Singapore disaster of 1942 and to recover her Far East empire. Australia, however, had imperial dreams of her own. Based on the strength of her new munitions industry and her greatly expanded armed forces, Australia's dream depended on guarantees of Anglo-American support that were never forthcoming. Australia soon found that her grandiose ambitions outran her limited capacity to achieve them. Even the United States, the new power-broker in the Pacific, found her ability to shape the region according to her own design was limited. The final push against Japan became too costly to contemplate, and so the United States encouraged the return of the Europeans to the region."--BOOK JACKET. "Based on an extensive use of private diaries and confidential papers, David Day has written a wide-ranging re-interpretation of the Pacific war that deserves to be read by all those seeking to understand these explosive events."--BOOK JACKET.