A Navy admiral’s plea to leave islanders “alone in their happiness” was later read as the origin of the “zoo theory” of neglect.

What happened

Rear Adm. Carlton Wright’s May 1947 editorial, “Let’s Not Civilize These Happy People,” praised the islands’ food, shelter and lack of economic inequality. An admiral’s remark, “for mercy’s sake let them alone in their happiness,” was later quoted by journalist E.J. Kahn, who noted that many Micronesians actually wanted the cash economy they had known under Japan.

Why it matters

The phrase came to sum up the slow, low-budget US approach to the territory in the 1950s.