389. Letter From the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Johnson) to the Deputy Secretary of Defense (Gilpatric)0
Dear Ros: I refer to your note of July 171 enclosing a copy of a memorandum from Ed Lansdale2 relating to a proposed invitation to visit the [Page 829] Philippines from Defense Secretary Peralta. I would like to be able to give an unqualified “yes” to Ed for, as you know, I have high regard for him and am very familiar with the great constructive job he did there. It is truly one of the great stories of American “political action.”
However, it is this very success and Ed Lansdale’s close personal identification with it throughout much of the Philippines that, regretfully, makes me skeptical about the wisdom of such a visit, even under the auspices of Peralta. As you know, we carefully and deliberately refrained from any interference of any kind in the last election and have been trying to pursue a policy of permitting the Philippines, and particularly Macapagal, to increase Philippine prestige in Southeast Asia by a posture of increased independence from the United States. He is successfully doing so and, although this also presents its problems, we feel that in the long run it will be beneficial to all of us.
Because of Ed’s previous identification with another phase of our policy, I fear that, no matter how this was handled, a visit by him could be seized upon by unfriendly elements as an effort on our part to return to active intervention in Philippine internal politics, and thus could well be counterproductive. Therefore, fully recognizing the undoubted constructive role that Ed could in fact play, and his own unquestioned motives, I nevertheless on balance feel that it would be wiser if he did not undertake such a visit.
If you desire, I would, of course, be glad to discuss this further with you.
Sincerely,
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF 7 PHIL–US. Personal and Confidential. A draft by Bell, dated July 27, was substantially revised by Johnson. This draft is attached to a July 29 memorandum from Hilsman to Johnson, in which Hilsman stated that he felt strongly that Lansdale should not go to the Philippines because he was “a symbol of the policy we have abandoned.” Hilsman noted that since Lansdale’s past affiliations were known, his mission would raise questions of U.S. interference in Philippine domestic affairs. Hilsman noted that there was a competent Embassy staff in Manila to report on Philippine developments. (Ibid.)↩
- Attached but not printed.↩
- Document 388.↩