Kissinger’s advice on martial law

Being an historian makes me look back on the past this week while everyone else puts on a straight face and looks forward to their future in 2017. Friends and family prepared for 2017 by attending midnight mass; others ate the 12 grapes at midnight or served noodles for long life. A few took the trouble to have the basket of round auspicious fruits at table for the New Year’s Eve get-together, prompting me to remind them that Chinese New Year is yet on Saturday, Jan. 28. People consulting the luck for their respective zodiac signs (both Western and Chinese zodiac, of course) made me feel the uncertainty that hovers over us with the ascent of Duterte to Malacañang and Trump to the White House.

Going over my library to sort books and research notes to plan timely columns and articles for 2017 made me think about the need for a Freedom of Information Act that has been promised us for years, and also the need to establish Presidential Libraries for the Philippines so that historians and the general public can make an honest assessment of the terms of our presidents from Emilio Aguinaldo to Rodrigo Duterte. Knowing best practices and what they did wrong can help in liberating us from the past.

To date, there seems to be no system for securing the historical papers of an outgoing president; some papers remain in the files of the Office of the President, others are published in the Official Gazette, we don’t know what are passed on to the National Library or the National Archives. This early, the Duterte Administration should start organizing the archive of presidential papers that can be the template for succeeding presidents. Then there must be a way for papers held by the families of previous Presidents to be scanned and deposited in the National Library or National Archives or the Malacañang Library and Museum. The main questions to be asked will be what papers should be kept and what can be disposed of? What papers are personal and what are historical? The issue of Hillary Clinton using her personal server instead of the official government server when she was Secretary of State is something we in the Philippines can learn from, because it also helps us draw the line between a person acting as a government official or in a personal capacity.

Going over material on the Philippines I have downloaded from the multi-volume Foreign Relations of the United States made me realize how important official documents become historical many years later. To give you an example, Henry Kissinger, when he was US President Richard Nixon’s Assistant for National Security Affairs wrote out a memorandum on Sept. 23, 1972, regarding Ferdinand Marcos’ imposition of martial law and his advice on how to proceed. Until it was declassified, it was marked both “Secret” and “Sensitive.” It was signed for Kissinger by a certain Haig and a notation stamp on the document indicated that Nixon had seen the memo. Kissinger first gives the situation on the ground: arrest of opposition to Marcos, closure of media, restriction of travel for Filipinos, etc. that we all know about. The US Embassy in Manila reported that “the country will react with resigned acceptance after the initial shock and uproar… At least in the short term, martial law should pose no direct serious problems for US security and economic relations with the Philippines. In fact, the climate for individual business operations might even be improved.”

Kissinger advised that the US “refrain from comment on Marcos’ action, regarding it as a Philippine matter.” To which Nixon wrote a note that reads “K-low key it.” Kissinger knew that US silence on martial law would draw criticism but that being on Marcos’ good side would result in “our maintaining effective access to our bases in the Philippines and his assistance in resolving U.S. private investment problems…”

Looking back on the events of 40 years ago in the light of declassified US official documents helps us see a bigger if not clearer picture of the martial law years. When can we do the same with Philippine official documents? When will Philippine historical materials be organized and made accessible online? Now that is but a Filipino historian’s dream for now.

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