395. Editorial Note
At a meeting of the National Security Council on July 12, Vice President Nixon discussed his recent visit to several Asian countries, including the Philippines. He summarized his impressions of recent developments in the Philippines as follows:
“The Vice President said that he had yet another point. The governmental leaders in these countries he found almost invariably obsessed with local rather than international issues. For example, in the Philippines the obsession was the lease of U.S. military bases. The Vice President had given the Filipinos the needed assurance of our intention to transfer title to these bases as soon as possible. This was sensible because if a government does not really wish to carry out a base agreement with the United States it doesn’t matter very much what kind of an agreement or lease we may have on paper. President Magsaysay is unquestionably willing to provide the United States with what we need by way of base rights and facilities; but he does insist on the transfer of title to these bases, at least in a symbolic sense.
“Admiral Radford pointed out that there were two entire mail bags filled with the records relating to our Philippine bases now in the Department of Defense. The contents of these two bags were in the course of being microfilmed and translated. Some of the documents went back as far as Spanish days. When the Defense Department has gotten through checking all these records they will of course have to be sent to Manila, where the titles will again be checked by the Filipino authorities. All of this process will naturally take time, but it must be completed before the actual transfer of title to the bases can be made to the Philippine Government. The Vice President said he understood the problem, but thought it would be advantageous if we could simply state what the problem was and [Page 658] assure the Filipinos that the process of transfer of title to the bases had actually begun in the United States.
“Admiral Radford said that he thought this was the essence of the official statement that the Vice President had made in Manila. The Vice President replied that of course he was aware that the base issue in the Philippines was a ‘phony’ issue, but people hostile to the United States in the Philippines are making propaganda of it. Some further statement would, the Vice President believed, be a useful weapon against Senator Recto and his gang. At least, therefore, the Pentagon should get out some news about what it is doing apropos of the transfer of leases. Admiral Radford then suggested that the records might provide the basis for a very interesting news story. The Vice President replied that this would be a very effective means of accomplishing his objective. The main thing was to assure support for President Magsaysay and to keep his enemies on the run.” (Memorandum of discussion at the 290th meeting of the National Security Council by Gleason, July 12; Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records)