The Forgotten Bombs: America’s Secret Nuclear Deployment in the Philippines During the Cold War
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Abstract
Why did the stationing of weapons of mass destruction in the Philippines not jeopardize Washington-Manila relations? This paper critically examines the clandestine deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons in the Philippines during the Cold War—a move that made the country a potential nuclear target and infringed upon its sovereignty. Drawing on declassified documents from the National Security Archive, it argues that the Philippines’ strategic culture, which heavily relied on the United States as its sole security guarantor, played a central role. Despite regional initiatives such as the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, the United States forward-deployed approximately 250 nuclear weapons in the Philippines, effectively turning the country into a potential flashpoint. This research explores how military cooperation and strategic reciprocity between the Marcos and Nixon governments led Philippine elites to prioritize the U.S. alliance over sovereignty and nuclear risks. Despite Marcos’s declaration of martial law in 1972 and the widespread human rights abuses that followed, the Nixon administration continued to support his regime, largely overlooking these issues due to shared anti-communist objectives and the strategic importance of U.S. military bases in the Philippines. Even after learning about the nuclear arsenals stationed at these U.S. bases, the Marcos regime continued to view the United States as its traditional ally, later receiving full support from the Nixon administration following the revelation of the nuclear weapons. This paper concludes that the Philippines’ strategic culture of relying on the United States as a security guarantor also contributed to the stability of bilateral ties, with the U.S. playing the role of protector and the Philippines adopting a strategic accommodation posture.
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