
Back in 1983, I scored a summer fellowship from my law school to research the plight of Cambodian refugees in Thailand. On the way back home, I stopped off in the Manila for a few days to see an old friend who was on his first overseas posting for the State Department. I mainly recall reconnecting with my pal and dealing with the aftermath of some bad oysters. But one discussion stands out…
It was in my friend’s apartment, with a few of his fellow junior embassy staffers, debating the Philippines’ future. One professed no love for then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who’d controlled the nation since declaring martial law in 1972. But he viewed the autocrat as securely in place and thus “the only game in town.”
Marcos was gone less than three years later, deposed by the country’s People Power revolution.
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