Office of the Historian

431. Letter From the Ambassador in the Philippines (Bohlen) to the Under Secretary of State (Herter)1

Manila, December 25, 1958.

Dear Chris: Although as you will see this is not exactly a Christmas letter, I do want to start by sending you and Mac2 very best wishes for Xmas and the New Year from Avis3 and me.

I am writing you from Baguio, where we are spending Xmas, and there are no stenographers. I only hope you can make out my handwriting.

I just received word from the Embassy in Manila that the Department has turned down my suggestion that I come back briefly for consultation on the bases negotiations.4 It is about these negotiations that I am writing and bothering you, especially since I will not have an opportunity to come home in order to go into the question thoroughly.

I am extremely concerned over this question, and particularly at the nature of the instructions I have been receiving and the complete rejection of all serious recommendations from me, backed, I might add, by the senior U.S. Military here and CINCPAC from Honolulu. What especially bothers me is that State and Defense seem to be making their decisions on a wrong and factually inaccurate estimate of the Philippine attitude and the general situation here. If we stick by our present position, these talks will collapse with far more adverse consequences to the United States than in 1956.

I can’t believe the final decision, judging from my instructions, has been made by anyone in State who has the foreign policy aspect clearly in mind. This is why I am writing you in a personal fashion.

You know, I am sure, that I took this job with some reluctance but was persuaded to do so largely because the importance of this base issue was stressed and the need for an Ambassador of long experience, etc., etc., to handle it. While obviously no commitment was made, the clear implication was that I would be given considerable leeway to exercise my own judgment. This has not only not been the case but I have been tightly controlled by the narrow and, I might add, the least convincing instructions it is possible to imagine.

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What all this adds up to, and why it is to you I am writing, is that I may find myself very soon forced to consider whether I should carry out instructions with which I profoundly disagree and which I know will be detrimental to U.S. interests here, or resign as U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines. I am not using this as a threat but a simple statement of fact.

I know how busy you are, but I wonder if you could look into this bases matter here, and particularly my recommendations, and write me a letter5 telling me what lies behind our position, which I can only describe as extraordinary.

Please excuse the trouble I am adding to all your other problems, but I am sure you know I would not do it unless it was really important.

With best wishes and thanks,

Very sincerely,

Chip Bohlen6
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Herter Papers, Personnel A–B Phil. Personal. The source text is a typed copy filed with Bohlen’s handwritten original; there are minor stylistic variations between the two.↩
  2. Herter’s wife Merry Carillon Pratt.↩
  3. Bohlen’s wife Avis Howard Thayer.↩
  4. Reference is to telegram 1683 to Manila, December 23, which instructed Bohlen to remain in the Philippines lest his return for consultation produce the same effect as Bendetsen’s visit to Washington in 1956, which led to the suspension of the base negotiations. (Department of State, Central Files, 711.56396/12–1958) See also footnote 5, Document 396.↩
  5. No reply from Herter has been found; however, telegram 1 773 to Manila, January 9, 1959, indicates that by then Bohlen had received authorization to return to Washington for consultation. (Department of State, Central Files, 711.56396/1–959)↩
  6. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩