JAWS III
Aldridge, Robert C.
JAWS III The Pentagon sinks its teeth into the South Sea islands BY ROBERT C. ALDRIDGE Welcome to the State of Peleliu," said the sign that stood where our runabout pulled up alongside the dock....
...Full independence awaits the termination of the trusteeship in a manner satisfactory to everyone concerned...
...If we do accept the military bases here in this state, or in Belau as a whole, then that means we are giving away a society of the people and accepting the society of money, as the two societies cannot coexist in Belau...
...The Solomon Report eerily foreshadows the scene in Belau: The power to withhold or withdraw funds, it says, "would be enough to compel any Micronesian government to follow the wishes of the High Commissioner in most matters...
...administration...
...Any disturbance of the reef worries the islanders...
...Since January 1, 1981, the Republic of Belau has been a semi-independent nation with the world's only nuclear-free constitution...
...The future of his village hangs in a precarious balance...
...If all goes according to U.S...
...Everyone knows who did what...
...Charter, the trusteeship was supposed to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of Belau's 14,700 inhabitants, and to help them move toward independent self-government...
...As the morning wore on, villagers dropped in, one or two at a time, to say goodby and present us with the only tangible gifts they could offer—beautiful sea shells...
...Of this small employed sector, government workers—from legislators to educators—are the largest group...
...We climbed steep steps chiseled into the mountainside, crumbling and overgrown with jungle vines, hiking to the highest point on Peleliu Island...
...At least ten Trident submarines are earmarked for the Pacific and they cannot be expected to make the long trek back to Puget Sound on of the four paramount chiefs in Belau...
...Their parting words were from the heart, and I pass them on to you: "Tell the people of America, please don't take the ocean and beaches away from the Belauans, or these shells will no longer come to our villages, and there will be no peace...
...It would be the first step toward a nuclear-free Pacific, and eventually a nuclear-free world...
...A 1975 report by U.S...
...And two means of egress would be available once a new channel was dredged through the barrier reef several miles out to sea...
...But success could spell defeat for the military expansionists...
...The final item on the Pentagon wish list is a naval port encompassing forty acres of dry and submerged land in Belau...
...Now I was traveling independently, touring the islands with guides from a Belauan pacifist group called "Ktalreng," or Robert C. Aldridge, an aerospace engineer, worked for sixteen years on the design and construction of submarine-launched missiles...
...The islands are important to the United States, and the Pentagon is riot about to shelve its plans because a few thousand Polynesians want to continue their peaceful life...
...A police officer put the domestic radio station out of commission with a stick of dynamite, and strikers threatened to blow up the islands' communications center, the only commercial radio link with the outside world...
...It comes—but in the form of paved roads and new cars and jeeps for the police...
...For almost thirteen years, the United States has been trying to negotiate a "Compact of Free Association" to terminate the trusteeship...
...We saw burned-out tanks, an old mortar battery dug into the mountainside— all reminders of the slaughter...
...manipulation...
...Navy Captain N.R...
...They are the very source of life...
...The original constitution was put to another popular ballot, this time getting a 78 per cent vote...
...But this reef protects a dazzling assortment of marine life—a fragile ecostructure vital to Belauan survival...
...There we were greeted by Lawrence Ngirturong, a stocky brown man in khaki cutoffs—unassuming on the surface but one a few hours out of the water...
...Even with the coming of Western democracy, the sixteen traditional chiefs still command the most influence here...
...The vegetation had grown back, but I could still picture the denuded rock of 1945...
...The fish we ate were never more than the Washington coast every time they change crews, resupply, or replace a defective missile...
...Since 1947, Belau has been under the American thumb: Along with the rest of Micronesia, it has been in the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, under U.S...
...Although Japanese newspapers published photos of the strike two days later, the only news reaching the American press was filtered through Navy channels...
...Another plus from the Pentagon's standpoint: Belau is directly in line with deep-water straits through Malaysia to the Indian Ocean...
...On the last morning of our visit, we sat down to a leisurely breakfast, enjoying a marvelous view of the ocean...
...It summed up America's position: "Micronesia is not now United States Territory," it said...
...Thirty-six years earlier, I had stopped overnight on this southern island of the Belauan archipelago while island-hopping as a GI from New Guinea to the Philippines...
...Spain claimed it from 1589 to 1899 and then sold out to Germany...
...On the other hand, the people of Belau are determined to keep the military from moving in...
...Since Belau produces nothing on which to base reciprocal trade, it has become a profitable, wholly dependent outlet for U.S...
...Just one year before that, he had issued National Security Memorandum 145 "which"—in the words of the Solomon Report—"set forth as United States policy the movement of Micronesia into a permanent relationship with the United States within our political framework...
...Someone—Belauans I spoke with did not know who—had circulated a petition demanding a 100 per cent pay hike, but in two weeks, it had drawn only about 250 signatures from the 934 government employes...
...The room filled and the conversation took an earnest turn...
...In the society of the people—and that is the society that we have and live in— the land, the water, the ocean, and the people are the source of life...
...territory...
...The constitution won by 92 per cent of the vote...
...He revealed a grasp of human nature that few in our "developed" society would share: "There are only two societies in the whole world," he said...
...Although rio newspaper correspondents are based in Belau, there were many Japanese reporters and an unusual number of American "tourists" on hand—considering the hour— filming everything...
...Although thatched roofs are rapidly giving way to corrugated tin, these characteristics still prevail...
...It would have four amphibious landing beaches, and another 2,000 acres would be set aside for nuclear and conventional munitions storage...
...Western chauvinists have grossly underestimated the cultural tenacity of Pacific peoples...
...The place was set on fire...
...Many thought the demand was preposterous—and even dangerous for a government funded by the U.S...
...By the time he had finished, everyone was clapping and cheering, even those who had torched his office and called for his head...
...The message is clear for all the islanders—the money comes through the U.S...
...Raises given government employes to settle the strike have put an extra burden on the budget...
...through legal skulduggery, invalidated the referendum, called another convention, and drafted a sanitized constitution free of the objectionable clauses...
...It was a cheery greeting, but an ominous feeling engulfed me...
...Another Belauan woman spoke for many when she said, "Any military is the same, except one speaks Japanese, one speaks Russian, and one speaks American...
...jobs are not necessary because food and housing are available to all at no cost...
...Two blasts blew out the doors of the president's office building...
...Joe pointed out that the American memorial did not mention the Belauans who fell in the crossfire of two occupying powers...
...Thus in all the work they do they must put economic interests above human life, and weapons of destruction and death are considered much more important than people...
...There is no rent or tax on land...
...All these events—from the three constitutional referenda, through the aborted mini-revolution, right up to the latest financial squeeze—suggest a pattern of U.S...
...In exchange for military installations that would occupy more than a quarter of the land area and ravage the environment, the Compact offers token rent and tempts the people with the most modest forms of development aid...
...Everything I saw strengthened my resolve that armies must never return to this peaceful paradise 500 miles east of the Philippines...
...In the society of people, life is a simple but happy one...
...The Americanization of Belau has also taken a more direct political route...
...One of the guides, a member of the Belauan legislature whom we knew as Joe, gestured toward a stone monument on the peak that had been put up by American GIs in 1944...
...What set off the people, however, is harder to trace...
...It is easy to see why, for the Compact promises a virtual treasure chest for the military...
...One of them is its strategic location in the Trident's operational waters—farther south than the reach of existing Polaris/ Poseidon submarines...
...For the village meeting that evening Chief Ngirturong wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the legend, "I'm No...
...Weatherworn letters, now barely discernible, pleaded, "Lest we forget...
...A wide-open brawl ensued...
...plans...
...Under terms of the U.N...
...Failure to show the Pentagon who is in charge on the island would dampen the spirit of other Pacific peoples...
...military presence in general and Trident bases in particular...
...The islands depend on U.S...
...Then two leading women of the jungle hamlet gave us a rare Sang shell, a special thing from the Creator which brings peace, they said...
...Rights of occupancy and use are guaranteed by family membership and are the security of young and old...
...Other hazardous substances were also banned...
...The "mini-revolution," as the Belauans call it, ostensibly was sparked by government employes dissatisfied with their pay...
...The Compact, if established, would turn Belau's lush tropical forests and sandy beaches into a Pentagon playground...
...Gooding, published by the National War College, mentioned the possible stationing of such planes on Babeldoab...
...He resigned when he recognized the first-strike characteristic of the Trident, and wrote his first article for The Progressive in 1977...
...The islands could take the first step toward a nuclear-free Pacific Outside the president's office, the mob was calling angrily for President Haruo Re-meliik, but when he arrived, he spoke calmly...
...The outcome of the mini-revolution has been increased loyalty to the president and a more confident administration...
...He told the strikers that no one had bothered to tell him they wanted more pay, and that he could not have helped them anyway—wage increases are the legislature's job...
...By the time the sun rose, and a Belauan flag was torched in front of the president's office, many of the strikers were drunk...
...One villager told me, "We're just getting over World War II, and now the military wants to come again...
...Shortly before, Peleliu had been a bloody battlefield where 15,000 Japanese, 7,000 Americans, and many islanders perished...
...It would allow the Pentagon to share the commercial airports on Babeldoab, the largest island, and Angaur, the southernmost, and to acquire additional land for runway extensions and parking aprons...
...terms...
...On Labor Day, September 7, an employes' meeting was held in Koror, the capital of Belau...
...But the United States stepped in and...
...Instead of supplying the tools for light agriculture and commercial fishing—the industries most likely to lead to self-reliance—the United States has brought in air conditioners, automobiles, fiberglass runabouts, and the like...
...Danger still lurks, however, in the latest move by the United States to put the financial squeeze on Belau...
...Also in the works is a 30,000-acre jungle warfare training camp on Babeldoab...
...The land and sea are sacred to the islanders...
...military aid, and then promised that no one would be prosecuted for rioting...
...And if withdrawal of aid doesn't force the chief executive "acting contrary to United States' interests" to resign, there are more expeditious ways of getting him out of the way...
...Unity...
...The smallest and youngest nation in the world must be saved...
...The people took the money, enjoyed the barbecues, and then voted the way they wanted to— defeating the laundered constitution by a 70 per cent majority...
...Over the years, the islanders have been introduced to enough Western technology and culture to establish their dependence on U.S...
...In 1969, a secret report written for President Kennedy in 1963 by Anthony Solomon, the chairman of the U.S...
...The new state governors must still take care to keep in the chief's good graces, and they take a back seat during municipal formalities...
...As we walked on the paths that wound past bountiful banana and taro plants, the villagers pointed out that no one would ever starve in Belau—as long as the military does not take While the overwhelming local opposition to military bases is encouraging, it also increases the danger of subterfuge...
...The guerrilla warfare training center planned for Babeldoab would do the same thing: prepare the armies of Asian dictators to keep their own people quiet when American corporations move in to exploit the land, labor, and resources...
...Let's forget this and work for the betterment of our new nation," he said...
...Whoever it was wielding the cameras, the "mini-revolution" was carried out with the fullest possible exposure...
...Trust Territory administration...
...The Solomon Report itself reveals the ultimate in Yankee arrogance in its outline of Washington's planned conquest...
...Added emphasis...
...The enormous meals served us were all harvested shortly before from nearby fields and trees...
...A drive along the old airstrip where our twin-engine C-46 had touched down long ago churned up more vivid memories...
...assistance does not come without strings...
...These are particularly important to military planners given the growing resistance to a U.S...
...Only about one in three Belauans works in the Western sense...
...Army whips the counterinsurgency troops of Latin American dictators into shape...
...They fear they may have to if they offer too much resistance to U.S...
...We wish it to become so...
...For several reasons, the Belauan port looks like the possible site of a Trident forward base...
...In the money society people are no longer human but are another form of computer where they are programmed to do things...
...My visceral knot tightened as we continued our tour of the island...
...We carry on similar exercises throughout the world," they said...
...One such place is the School of the Americas in Panama, where the U.S...
...As a private researcher who seeks to promote public understanding of the arms race, he made two trips to Belau last year...
...There is a good native intelligence, a dignity of person, and high standards of civil behavior...
...But the United States has always had other goals...
...Last September, American newspaper headlines suddenly cried, "Island Nation of Belau Has Trouble—Bombs, Walkouts...
...That remote dot in the vast ocean, Belau, cannot be ignored...
...Along with their memories of the last war, many islanders hew hard to a set of religious beliefs that are strongly anti-military and to a certain extent even anti-foreign and anti-modern...
...But even within this group, the "mini-revolution" seemed to attract little popular support...
...business...
...President Remeliik is trying to get more cash from Washington...
...News stories told of a riot-torn capital and offers of military aid from the United States...
...He flatly refused the U.S...
...Again and again we sensed what Solomon called the "dignity of person" as we visited outlying islands like Peleliu or the state of Ngaremlengui on the western coast of Babeldoab, close to the proposed guerrilla training zone...
...Dynamite was passed out...
...1." The chief's humor was contagious but his welcoming words to us were sincere...
...Belau is the focal point of American military expansion in the Pacific...
...plans, this tropical chain of more than 200 volcanic and coral islands—only eight of them inhabited—could be the new home of a guerrilla-warfare training camp, airstrips for war planes, and perhaps a Trident submarine base...
...They remember the horror of World War II, and that it was Japanese bases which brought the American invasion...
...It would let the United States bring in small contingents of another country's armed forces, and Belauans think this means the air base on Babeldoab will be home to Japanese anti-submarine warfare airplanes...
...President Kennedy himself remarked in 1963 that "before they open their eyes we must secure [Micronesia] as a U.S...
...In Belau, the land has belonged to the clans for more than 3,000 years, from long before the Western exploration of the Pacific and the arrival of "civilization...
...On "Blood Beach" we could still pick up spent shell casings...
...The Trust Territory administration poured in thousands of dollars to campaign for the pro-American document, while American "tourists"— CIA agents, the islanders charge—threw barbecue parties all over the islands to brighten up Uncle Sam's image...
...About 700 people watched the melee, including about 250 strikers...
...Between the two World Wars, Japan occupied the islands under a League of Nations mandate...
...But what is probably most attractive to the Navy is Belau's tiny population and remote setting...
...assistance—and U.S...
...Survey Mission to Micronesia, was leaked...
...It may not sound like much of a deal, but it has caused a dilemma for Belau...
...officials gave a hint of their interest in such a plan more than a decade ago, during 1971 Micronesian status talks in Hawaii...
...Jails were opened and prisoners released...
...And the Pentagon is far from satisfied...
...But the Pentagon has other ideas...
...The United States immediately sent offers of military aid...
...In early 1979, the Belauans called a constitutional convention and drew up a document forbidding the mining, production, testing, storage, use, or transportation of all nuclear materials in their islands...
...We will not survive, for in the society of money only few and rich survive...
...A common saying now is that when soldiers come, war comes...
...Withdrawal of funds could certainly be used, for example, to force the resignation of a Chief Executive who might be acting contrary to the United States' interests...
...In that society, human life is valued much more than economic interests, much more than military equipment and other tools of destruction and death...
...One is the society of the people, and the other is the society of money...
...A demonstration was planned for the next morning, and beer was served...
...What happens here will foreshadow what happens in other new island nations...
...Our host's house stood on one of the white sandy beaches in danger of being turned into a practice landing area for amphibious assault forces...
...Islanders appreciate their natural bounty...
...But when I visited, legislators' said they had only enough money coming in to meet the payroll...
...To get to Ngaremlengui, we weathered heavy seas and a tropical squall in our fourteen-foot runabout, then entered a mangrove channel which opened into a secluded wonderland...
...Federal funds, channeled through the Trust Territory administration, to conduct their own affairs...
...pipeline, on U.S...
...On the one hand, the people have tasted the luxuries of a developed society, and a small but influential minority does not want to turn off the television sets, unplug the electric stoves, and go back to paddling canoes...
...History has shown that the CIA has no qualms about using such means...
...Belau also has ready access to deep water, meaning quick dives after leaving port...
...Land is the tie that binds families and clans together...
...This is why tearing up the islands for military bases would break a long-standing taboo...
...Yet, ironically, it was that same report which warned, "The people of Micronesia are not unintelligent—far from it, even those living in small villages, under thatched roofs, without water or electricity or toilets, and only half-dressed by American standards...
...That's the only difference...
...We were waiting for the tide to come in and bear us away...
...The Belauan chain, formerly called Pa-lau from its Japanese pronunciation, has been under the control of various foreign powers for four centuries...
Vol. 46 • May 1982 • No. 5
