UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies

In 1947, when the newly independent Philippine government granted the United States the right to use military bases at Subic Bay and Clark Air Field, the United States government saw to it that the terms included the right of the U.S. to install on these bases "any type of weapons." From the very beginning the Pentagon insisted on establishing the right to relate U.S. bases in the Philippines to possible plans for nuclear war. Also, from the very beginning many Filipinos opposed U.S. bases there. In April 1983, the United States government and the government of the Philippines are to begin a review of the bases agreement of 1979. Opponents of the nuclear arms race in both the Philippines and the U.S. can greatly benefit from the work of Jorge Emmanuel detailing the potential effects of nuclear war upon the Philippines.