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The Philippines: Allies During the Vietnam WarVietnam | one comment | Print This Post | Email This Post
The Nixon Doctrine, announced in July 1969, while intended to reassure the United States’ allies of the country’s intent to honor its commitments, also indicated that the U.S. military presence would be reduced. The Nixon Doctrine was followed by the November 1969 announcement by Carlos P. Romulo, Philippine secretary of foreign affairs, to the American Embassy in Manila that PHILCAG would be withdrawn from Vietnam completely. Subscribe Today
The American partial troop withdrawals in 1971, announced in the middle of 1970, as well as the opening of contacts between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, confirmed the need for the Philippines to find its own accommodations with Communist-bloc countries.
A certain amount of horse-trading is a necessary evil in the course of making agreements with allies concerning military assistance. Some degree of logistical support is still commonly provided by the United States to allied countries in military operations. For example, in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, logistical support in one form or another was provided to countries such as Bahrain, Egypt, Great Britain, France, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
In Desert Storm, the type of aid offered by various allied participants was well suited to the resources of the contributing country. The United States provided some logistical support, but also received in return important materiel, such as German Fuchs reconnaissance vehicles. The Gulf War was a true cooperative effort. This was not entirely the case with the Philippines in South Vietnam, however. The rural development specialists, psychological warfare and civil affairs advisers that preceded the combat engineers were considerably more appropriate a form of aid to South Vietnam. Why then did President Marcos insist on combat engineers? Considering that the one battalion sent to Vietnam was parlayed into 10 battalions at home, as well as ‘other items,’ it might be argued that he had more in mind than making a generous gesture of support to another country. His assistance was acquired on his own terms, and American anxiety for more flags probably led the United States to pay too dear a price.
When a country provides military assistance to another country, the limits of reasonable support should be kept in mind. It was a pleasant surprise when researching certain aspects of the Gulf War to find that the United States has indeed learned this lesson of the Vietnam War.
This article was written by Kathleen Lockwood and originally published in the June 1999 issue of Vietnam Magazine. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! Pages: 1 2 3 4 5Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Foreign Affairs, Historical Conflicts, Politics, Vietnam War
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One Comment to “The Philippines: Allies During the Vietnam War”
Very enlightening article. I was a teenage volunteer stretcher bearer at the Clark AFB PI hospital in ‘66, helping with the med evac effort and followed the news of the first Philippine troops deployed to Vietnam. They had casualties on their second day, when a jeep was flipped by a land mine and injured at least three of them. A few days later, some of the VN arriving wounded included a few asian nationalities that didn’t look like Thais or Koreans (whose more serious cases were routed to Clark). I inquired and they said they were Filipinos. When i asked if they were the ones injured by a land mine, they acted surprised i could know that. I told them i read it in the Stars and Stripes newspaper and that, imo, they could expect to be getting lot of attention from the media, as soon as the Filipinos found out they were back in the PI. They were the first Philippine casualties of the war.
I remember telling them they’d be heroes, from what i’d been reading in the S&S. But i can see now that they probably had a different perspective on things and that might explain their uneasiness with the surroundings. The hospital had volumes of VN wounded cycling in and out every day. The med care there was excellent but Marcos had them moved to a Manila hospital before the day was over.
By 26Charlie on Mar 3, 2009 at 5:54 am