The Aquino Case And American Foreign Policy Towards Philippines (1972-1980)

As American former colony and key ally in the Asian-Pacific region, The Philippines has important strategic significance to the United States, so every American government pays close attention to the political change of the Philippines. When Ferdinand Marcos imposed the Martial Law in 1972, Benigno Aquino, the leader of Liberal Party, who was Marcos’s main political opponent, had been arrested and stayed in prison for 8 years. In these years, there are Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations in America, this paper focuses on their responses to Aquino case, which could reflect the transition of the foreign policy of the United States to the Philippines.Secondly, this paper analyzes the causes of the policy transformation process from three angles, which are the international situation, the American interests in the Philippines and the domestic political struggle in the U.S. The viewpoint is that in the 1970s, the decline of American power and the rise of the Soviet union’s strength and the development of the third world, is not only the reason why Nixon administration chose to reduce the duty worldwide, on the sidelines and avoid interfering the Aquino case, but also the reason why the Carter administration pursued moral superiority and interfered Aquino case. Because Marcos protected American security and economic interests in the Philippines, American governments had to make concession to the despotic dictatorship of Marcos and his administration, especially in the way of dealing with Aquino case. Since the 1970s, the struggle for diplomatic power between American congress and the President also promoted the changing of policy. The Ford administration interfered Aquino case passively because the pressure from congress. The Carter administration once reached a consensus with congress on the "human rights diplomacy", which promoted the active intervention on Aquino’s case in 1977. However, when the Carter administration shifted the emphasis from human rights to the national interests, the American congress had to accept the strategic retreat on Aquino case.In the last, this paper focused on the profound influence which was produced by the three governments, with particular emphasis on the different levels of attention of Nixon, Ford and Carter administration to the Aquino case, the Ford administration’s limited intervention and the Carter administration’s active intervention, which are the efforts to promote democracy in the Philippines. These efforts laid a solid foundation for the normalization of the Philippine society in the future. Similarly, American governments also made efforts to rescue Kim Dae-Jung, who was the opposition leader in South Korea. Both the incidents of Aquino and Kim Dae-Jung reflected the Democratic dilemma of the United States in the third world, although they had to support the dictator temporarily, they also remained good desires to build or restore democratic society in these country.