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MARCOS TRIP TO CHINA
"Facing Reality" in East Asia
MAO
TSE-TUNG
welcoi'MS Philippine Pumdtml M•tcos (nght)
on hts arrival
in
PeiCJng
MANILA: The recent
v~J>ot
to
C hona by Philippine President
Ferdonand Maroos was pcrhaps
the
most
dramaúc amrmnlicm
of his intcntion to cstnblish con–
tacts with !be communist world.
During the four-day visot to
Chma in early Junc. Pre>idcnt
Maroos had one long mecung
"'th Chairman Mao. two meet–
ongs wnh Premier Chou En-lai
and three mcetings v.nh Vice
Prcmi<r Teng Hsiao-pong.
fhe copstone of the tnp wa>
che si¡¡ning between Marca> and
l'rcmter Chou En-lao of a jotnt
communiqué which provided
for the escabl ishment of diplo–
matic relatioos between tite two
g"'emments.
In
the commuru<¡ut
the Phitippine govemment ac–
knowledged that the People's
Republtc of China ts the sole
legal govemment ofChona. The
Philtppines bound uselfto break
oll'all ties with Taiwan.
The Philippines. long
a
>trongly anti-communist coun–
try and American ally. but one
that is now questiontng thc
value of Amencan milttary
base. on her soil, thus becomes
the S«<nd member of
A>sooa
ttOn ofSoutheast A$oan Natoon>
(ASEAN) to recogmze Pekong
as the sole representa uve of the
Chonese pcople.
Malaysia did so about ayear
ago. Thailand. another
lon~
time American ally. which tS
now seeking to normalizo rela–
tions with both North Vietnam
and lhc new communisl govcrn·
ment in the south,
tS
:.aid to be
eonsidering tbe same move The
two other ASEAN states are
Singapore and Malay>oa.
Commenting on the back–
ground leading up to the htsto–
ric visn. the PbiUppone
Daily
E:xpres.•
in its June 3 ossue at–
tempted to p lay down the im-
WtEK EI'IDING JULY
12. 1975
pact of
Americo'~
mtsfonunes
in Asia as a reason for the
chango in Manola's forcign pol–
icy. ' 'This event
b
not
a
hnphaz–
ard move.n
it
told
1ts
rcaders.
"Filip ino-Chinese relntions
have beco in the proverbial
cards for qunc sorne umc now.
with tbe normahzatoon process
traceable
lO
M
ay 1972 when the
Philippine g"'ernment tSsued
an order allowing
eoonom1C
in·
tercourse woth Mlciahst coun–
tnes. Then two years later.
China became thc boggest Phil–
ipp ine trade partner in thc So–
cialist bloc."
lt
is important to note that
the
Philippon~
os geographi–
cally
close
to Chtna (four hours
byjet to Pekong) and both coun-
Japan
(Contlnutd from
pagt ))
nological capacitic;, could deto–
nate a nuclear device similar to
lndia•s within two 10 six months
of a decision to do so. And that
option rema1ns opcn to Japan.
The nuclear non-proloferauon
treaty. currently before the Jap–
anese Diet. has not.
as
yet. beco
rati6ed.
"Self-Defense Forces" Couldn't
Hold Out
Long
For the time being, however,
there appcars to be little cause
for alarm over a reemergent
militarism. The ultra-nation–
alistic and mwtamtic ;pint of
the
JOs
and
40>
tS vtrtuáll) non–
existen! today. except for a
small right-wmg frtnge. At
present, support is over–
whelming on the part of politi–
cians, s trategoc thinkers. and the
general public for thc nalion's
..no-war" constitution.
tries had trade relatoons
cen–
turie s before Spain and
Americo ever set foot on Philip–
pine soil. Mr. Marcos. in his
open ing remark> tll
~
State din–
ner in Peking. rt<:alled !he land
bridge. thal connccted the Phil–
ippines to the mainland but
whieh the oce age flooded and
the "tades of colontahsm"
washed away. He also said.
·•r
havc joumcyed to Chtna on a
mission for the
42
mollion Fili–
pinos of our Republic to assure
ourselves that the bridges ...
will no! agatn be washed
away."
Upon his arrival home from
his
unusually warm rcception in
Peking, Mr. Marcos mentioned
that the new Chtna eonneaion
does not prcJUdtce old alhances
and relaoons woth other nations
- an obviou• rcference to the
United States. The President
carne home also with the assur–
ance of China's leaders thal
th cy will not strcngthen the
Comrnunist Pany of the Philip–
pines nor ;,upport any sub–
versive acttvlly
dirccted
against
the Ph1Lippone government.
Presiden! Ma l"C05 is facing
the reality of the tomes.
as
are
otber nations on Southeast Asia.
lt
could mun that
on
the future
Communist China wtll become
the leader of
a
thord world
power b loc where not a ll couo–
tries are ncces>arily communist.
Whilc in Pcking, President
Marcos statcd that China is the
"natural leader of the third
world."
O
- ColinAdair
Posstbly the best mensure of
the overall national attitude is
the current •tate of Japan's
armed
force.~.
callcd ' 'Self-De–
fense Forces" sincc Japan is
prohibited by
liS
constitution
from havong formal armies.
Japan's yearly defense budget
ofS3.8 bolhon tS proporúonately
one of
the
~mallest
ID
the worl<l
representing le.s than 1% of the
nation's GNP. Th1s compares to
8%
in tbe Uniled Slates and 3%
to
S%
ID
the nations of Western
Europe. T hc defense budget
represet\ls only $33 per Japa–
nesc citizcn pcr year - fnr be–
low the Unoted
Sea
ces'
$404
per
pcrson and West Oermany's
Sl83 pcr person
Consequently. the Self.De–
fense Force - currently num–
bering ooly
233,000
troops - is
a far cry from Japan's formi–
dable Imperial Army of
5
mil–
lion mcn at thc oucset of World
WarlJ .
The small Japnnese air force
ARI IUCHWALD
The
$40 Billion
WANGO
WASIIINOTON: Whilc the
rest of the country is fast asleep,
tbere ore men m Washington
workong on new defense "eap–
ons that woll protect ""' from
any cnemy foolisb eoough
to
test our woll.
One of them os Kipoess wbo
lives down the street. The other
day at an outdoor barbecue,
Kipne.s told me about
a
new
weapons system he wa> in–
volved wilh which would make
all other systems obsoleto.
1t
was called WANOO. wbich
>tands for Walter Anhur Neil
George and Osear.
Ktpness satd,
" 1
don't believe
l 'm •peaktng out of school be–
cause "e're gomg up to the
Hill
in a few days and ask for $15
bollion to get ti oll' !he drawing
board."
"What
is
it?"
1
asked.
" Well.
as
you
~now
we now
have submarinos that
can
fire
10 mulople mtssiles
at
one ome.
WANOO os a system that con
fire 10 submartnes from
a
miS–
sile at the same time."
' 'That's a lot of submarines."
1 saod. "But what good is it to
fire ;,ubmarones from the air at
t he enemy?"
"lt's not good," Kipness said,
"except that it's a chip io the
SALT talk pokcr game."
" l'm not too sure what the
SALT tall. pok<r game is all
about •
consosts of only 386 aircran.
which military analysts estimate
eould hold out on ly four hours
in the face of a Soviet attack.
Tht navy numbers 127 vessels,
with 110 combat aircr aft.
Againsl che Russians, tbe Japa–
nese fteet would last about four
days. The army could survive
somewhat longer - betwcen
t"o weeks toa month.
1t
ts acutely clear, therefore,
that under the present circum–
scances Japan's defense must
rest primarily on its 1951 mu–
tual security treaty with the
Uniced Stnlcs - meaning the
U.S. 7th Fleel, Sth
Air
Force.
and the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
But now, with unoeru.inty
ovcr Amenca's rcbability
as
an
ally foUowtng the collapse of ln–
docbtna. we should not be too
surprised if sorne cbanges be–
come apparent on the Japanese
auitude as thcir reassessment
focuses in on present-<lay políti–
ca]
and mili tary reaUties.
O
" h's quite simple. When you
negouate with the Russians. you
have
10
have a certain amount
of chtps. You say to them. 'lf
)OU
gtve up
~IRVing.
we'll
g1ve up MARVing.' Our cbip tS
the MARV and their chop is the
MIRV."'
"What's a MARV?" 1 asked.
"A maneuverable re-enlry
vchocle. MARV gives us a sub–
stanttal increase in the accuracy
of strategic missile warheads
and the ability to knock out an
adve.-.ary's missiles in the silo.·
"That sounds great."
1
said.
"lf ot works. No one wtll
know for five years whether or
not it wdl tly.
So
that's our chtp.
The Russians don't know, eo–
ther. lt's like the B-1. Everyone
assumes that by the time the B-
1 is built bombcrs will be obso–
lele. But by building them wc're
proviDg to the Russians tbal we
mean business.
"Then there's AWACS. ThtS
os
a
$100
million command
plane with the latest sophtS·
ticated electronic
gear
that can
help Aor Force general$ dorcct
fighter bombers against targets
from tho air instead of the
ground, although they'U proba–
b ly be obsolctc."
"That should be enough
chtps to play poker with the
Russians."
"No way. They have the
chops to match them. But
.o
far
they have nothing to compare
to WANOO. Sure. they have
nuclear submarinos. but lhey
scill haven't figured out
a
way of
Rrin~
10 of them at us with
a
miSSliC. Whcn we announce
WANOO, they're going to go
crazy."
"1 guess SIS biUion isn't too
much to pay fO< a dup hke
WANGO."
"Foneen billion dollars tS JUSI
to find out tf
u
will work. Well
need
S40
billion to put tt tnto
production. But it's a good on–
vestment, because if it works
we
a lso can sell il to the Shah of
lrnn ."
"And if it doesn't work?"
"We'll sell it to the Shah any–
way. The importan! thing when
talking Wlth the Soviets is for us
to
knp eomong up w11h
new
'+capons
systems so tht!y'/1 know
w~t're
s«tous about trying
ro
stop
1he orms
roe~."
• And thcn they'll oome up
woc h new systems to show
they're jusi as serious aboul dis–
armament.''
"Right. The more weapon>
we both can develop. the better
chance we have of coming to
the SALT agreement. Lf we let
thcm know
we
have WANOO.
they may be willing to stop
makong IVAN."
"What's IVAN?"
" lt stands for Llitch Víctor
Anatole and Nathan."
01!7$. IMA~
,.._