Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Southeast Asia, Volume XXII

421. Memorandum of a Conversation, Malacañang Palace, Manila, December 14, 1956¹

Manila, December 14, 1956

PARTICIPANTS

• President Magsaysay
• Assistant Secretary Robertson
• Chargé Horace H. Smith

At a private meeting at Malacañan on December 14 following the breakfast in honor of Mr. Robertson,² the President stated that he hoped to be able to arrive at a satisfactory agreement on the bases issues. He underlined the difficulty he was facing on the question of jurisdiction and said he had asked Senator Laurel to study the U.S. proposal in an effort to find some “optical” changes which would make the proposal more palatable to the Philippines.

The President mentioned that he was encountering much difficulty in handling Senator Pelaez but thought that if he obtained Senator Laurel’s support on the jurisdiction issue which he characterized as the only problem, he could get along with Pelaez. Pelaez, he said, had written him a letter on December 6 tendering his resignation as a member of the Philippine panel. The letter was couched in bitter and scathing terms, and the President had not as yet been able to persuade Pelaez to withdraw it.

Mr. Robertson expressed deep regret that the negotiations had not succeeded and made it clear to the President that the U.S. position on jurisdiction, which he said was based on arrangements the U.S. has with its NATO allies, was absolutely firm and subject to no substantive compromise. He hoped very much that an agreement could be reached. He said President Eisenhower had instructed our negotiator to lean over backwards in trying to meet the Philippine viewpoint, that Mr. Bendetsen had made every effort to do this but that we could not make an agreement with the Philippines with respect to jurisdiction which would upset our other allies and which would not obtain approval of our Congress. Mr. Smith gained the impression that the President, perhaps for the first time, became convinced that there was no basis for bargaining on jurisdiction.

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 711.56396/12–2656. Secret. Drafted by Smith on December 22.
2. During the conversation held during that breakfast meeting, Robertson “emphasized that the United States must consider its bases arrangements within a world-wide context.” (Memorandum of conversation by William Walker, December 26; ibid.)