324. Memorandum of Conversation1
SUBJECT
- Summary of the President’s Meeting with Senator Daniel Inouye
PARTICIPANTS
- President Carter
- Senator Daniel Inouye
- Secretary of State Cy Vance
- Secretary of Defense Harold Brown
- Zbigniew Brzezinski, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
- Richard Holbrooke, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia
- Nicholas Platt, Staff Member, NSC (Notetaker)
President: I have never heard such rave reviews of a Congressional trip abroad as followed your trip to Manila.2 I’m very pleased with the results, and particularly glad that we had a chance to discuss the Philippines before you took your trip.3 I’m interested in hearing from you whether the visit was as successful as reported.
Inouye: I’m awed by the gathering in this room. The only occasion I would normally see all of you together is a joint session of Congress.
Mr. President, there is no question but that the United States is going to stay in the Philippines. To move out and replace what we have there would be intolerable to Congress, even though the Congress does not fully understand the value of our Philippine relationship. The Filipinos are desperate for our stamp of approval. The subtle messages that President Marcos feels he has been receiving from the United States have been negative. For example, Mrs. Marcos asked me if our President would ever receive on an official basis a person of Assistant Secretary rank from another country. How would your President feel, I was asked, if that Assistant Secretary, upon being received, handed to the President of the Philippines a letter critical of his policy, then proceeded to castigate him to his face, and finally requested permission to see his political prisoners? The fact is that this has happened, Mr. President. Assistant Secretary Pat Derian went to the Philippines, was received by President Marcos, presented him with a letter from Senator [Page 1054] Reigle, lectured him on human rights policy, and then asked to see Aquino.4 Subsequently, the United States Government informed the Philippine Government that the Veterans Administration Hospital would be phased out.
I am convinced that we have no major problem with the Philippines but rather an accumulation of small issues that can be cleared up in a year. It is the small pebble in one’s shoe that is the greatest irritant. The Filipinos compare how we deal with them with the preferential treatment we give the Japanese, Iran, and the Israelis. They are aware that their human rights record is not very good, but as Marcos said to me, “We are not as bad as Iran.” Israel has 500 people in jail with no charges pending against them.
The one thing the Filipinos crave is approval. Before Ambassador Murphy went to present his credentials to Marcos he asked my advice as to what he should wear. I told him not to wear a business suit, but to dress up as formally as if he were presenting credentials at the Court of St. James. I realize that this is uncomfortable and makes one look like a penguin. But the Ambassador followed the advice, delighted the Filipinos, and represented you well.
Specifically, after conferring with government representatives over the years, I would like to say that this Ambassador (Murphy) is the most professional that I have met. He is low-profile, tough, the best I’ve known.
When in Manila I told Marcos that we cannot have a multi-year commitment on compensation for our military bases. But I told him that we could make a commitment for one year and then undertake to provide the rest in subsequent years.
President: To make a best effort.
Inouye: Yes. No President can come out and say what one can get through Congress in subsequent years. An election is coming. New people may take office who have different views. I told Marcos that agreement, if it was to be favorably concluded, must be finished by the end of this year so that funding can be included within the FY–1980 budget request. Next year is an election year. The chances for success are more complicated. Marcos then told me that he would start moving.
Holbrooke: As soon as the Senator left, the military-to-military talks started moving forward quickly.
[Page 1055]Inouye: There has been favorable action on the veterans hospital. I promised Marcos that I would bring to your attention both the coconut oil tariff question and radar coverage problem.
President: I want to send a letter to Marcos thanking him for his efforts.5 I really want to move quickly and to reduce tensions between us.
Inouye: I did something somewhat undiplomatic, but I told Ambassador Murphy in advance what I was going to do. The Filipino Ambassador here is a nice gentle fellow, but that is all. I told Marcos that he needed a strong Ambassador in the United States if the base agreement were to be successfully concluded. A strong joint effort involving Defense, State, and the Philippine Government will be required.
President: That’s good. We would not have gotten the Panama Canal Treaty without Gabriel Lewis.6
When I saw Mrs. Marcos, she was concerned about her reception by Congress when she was visiting Washington.7
Inouye: She asked for it. She should have known better.
Brzezinski: I saw her in Rome and she invited me for drinks. She seemed to be on a more even keel, and was very gracious to me.
Inouye: President Marcos seemed in very good health. Mrs. Marcos has put on a few pounds, but seems more confident than I have ever seen her. Incidently, she put on an extravagant dinner for me, the features of which were 1970 Dom Perignon champagne and a 1961 Chateau Lafitte Rothschild. You would have been criticized had you given it.
Brown: No wonder the Filipinos are asking us for higher aid levels.
President: Thank you for a completely constructive visit. I agree that our problems with the Philippines are a combination of minor irritants and that we should move to solve them. Pat is in some ways an unguided missile, but she is learning.8
Inouye: That incident concerned President Marcos very much. She told him that she was the only Assistant Secretary of State to be sworn in by the President.
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Far East, Platt Chron File, Box 65, 11/16–30/78. Secret. The conversation took place in the Cabinet Room at the White House.↩
- Inouye visited the Philippines October 23–28.↩
- Inouye met with the President on October 19, 9–9:28 a.m. (Carter Library, Presidential Materials, President’s Daily Diary)↩
- See footnote 3, Document 322.↩
- Carter’s letter, dated November 22, was transmitted in telegram 300318 to Manila, November 27. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D780489–0709)↩
- Panamanian Ambassador to the United States.↩
- Not further identified.↩
- Reference is to Patricia Derian.↩