Skip to main content
Book cover

Friendly Tyrants pp 201–219Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Timely Daring: The United States and Ferdinand Marcos

  • Chapter

  • 71 Accesses

Abstract

What lessons can be drawn from American policy toward the Philippines in the crisis of 1983–1986? Maybe none, and that is unfortunate because at the climax of the crisis the United States government acted with timely daring to strengthen democratic forces in the Philippines, extract the autocratic Marcos from the situation, and minimize bloodshed. But such a success can not readily be repeated elsewhere. For policy daring to be both timely and effective, one must know well the culture, history and leaders with whom one is dealing. One must also possess suasive force backed by naked power, if necessary. Certainly among Asian nations, and perhaps among all nations, the Philippines has been unique in its susceptibility to American ideals and its proximity to American power.

Keywords

  • United States Government
  • American Action
  • American Policy
  • American Criticism
  • Opposition Leader

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-21676-5_10
  • Chapter length: 19 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-1-349-21676-5
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Hardcover Book
USD   199.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. My view on the period 1983–1986 follows in part from conversations with several major actors, including the late Benigno Aquino, Jr., Jaime Cardinal Sin, General Fidel V. Ramos, Salvador P. Laurel, and American Ambassadors Michael Armacost and Stephen Bosworth. I have also benefitted from the criticism of John Bresnan and Stanley Kamow. Before publication of this article which is the basis of the present essay, “Marcos and the Philippines,” Orbis, Fall 1988, pp. 569–686, I offered President Marcos full opportunity for reply or correction. Only after publication did he provide a riposte: Ferdinand E. Marcos, “A Defense of My Tenure,” (Orbis, Winter 1989, pp. 91–96). My own rejoinder, “What Marcos Doesn’t Say,” follows in the same issue (pp. 97–105). The exchange between us represents, to my knowledge, the only published engagement with a critic that President Marcos undertook during his exile. He died in Honolulu on September 28, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  2. William C. Hamilton, “United States Policy in the Period Leading to the Declaration of Martial Law and Its Immediate Aftermath,” in Carl Landé, ed., Rebuilding A Nation: Philippine Challenges and American Policy (Washington D.C.: The Washington Institute Press, 1987), pp. 505–515.

    Google Scholar 

  3. See Raymond Bonner, Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of American Policy (New York: Times Books, 1987), pp. 98–99, 112–120, quotation p. 112. Richard Nixon has declared (in a letter to The New York Times, June 7, 1987) that Bonner is wrong. Stanley Kamow’s account of the declaration of martial law is best researched and reasoned: In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines (New York: Random House, 1989), pp. 356–360.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Primitivo Mijares, The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinandandlmelda Marcos (San Francisco, California: Union Square Publications, 1976). This book is now rare.

    Google Scholar 

  5. As evidence, however, that Mijares’s fate did not deter all other journalists, see Marcelo B. Soriano, ed., The Quiet Revolt of the Philippine Press (Manila: WE Forum, 1981).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Joaquin G. Bernas, S. J., “Constitutionalism after 1972,” in Ramon C. Reyes, ed., Budhi Papers, vol. 6 (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila, 1985), pp. 190–203.

    Google Scholar 

  7. For discussions of the assassination and cover-up, see Sandra Burton, Impossible Dream: The Marcoses, the Aquinos, and the Unfinished Revolution (New York: Warner Books, 1989), chapters 5, 6, 9, 10, 14.

    Google Scholar 

  8. This account is condensed from Bryan Johnson, The Four Days of Courage (New York: The Free Press, 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Richard Kessler, “Marcos and the Americans,” Foreign Policy, Summer 1986, p. 57.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Theodore Friend
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

    Copyright information

    © 1991 Foreign Policy Research Institute

    About this chapter

    Cite this chapter

    Friend, T. (1991). Timely Daring: The United States and Ferdinand Marcos. In: Pipes, D., Garfinkle, A. (eds) Friendly Tyrants. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21676-5_10

    Download citation