US-Philippines Strategic Relations: Underpinning of an Unequal Association

In its long history of serving as a major world power, the United States has had only one major colonial possession in the Asia-Pacific - the Philippines. Soon after achieving victory in World War II, the US granted independence to the Philippines, while the European powers were striving hard to retain their colonial possessions. Why did the new global superpower end its colonial rule, while the weaker European imperial powers were tempted to keep theirs? It was actually a master political stroke by the Truman Administration. While giving political independence to the Filipinos, it deftly erected a structure of an unequal relationship with the Philippines to turn the country into a powerful military bastion to serve American interests. One of the consequences of this policy was reflected in Washington's need to maneuver and engineer the election process in the Philippines in order to keep in place a pro-American head of state. Filipino presidents, in the early 1950s, were made in the US, while elections took place in the Philippines. Based on archival research, this book examines the historical relationship between these two countries.