"HERE we go again!" These were the words of US President Ronald Reagan in one of his presidential debates with his opponent, former vice president Walter Mondale. The Reagan comment applies to the current proposals to junk the Enchanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) by critics of our foreign policy. The usual reasons the critics cite are: 1) the EDCA and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the offspring of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), are for the benefit of the US; 2) that the US will drag us into war under the MDT; and 3) it is unconstitutional.
This author has been in the frontline of this debate about our foreign policy. In 1967 immediately after passing the Foreign Service Officer examinations, I was designated chief of the American Affairs Division. Like all desk officers in a foreign ministry, I had to bear the brunt of defending our foreign policy vis-à-vis the United States. Over a period covering seven decades, the critics of our foreign policy have not changed their tune, in the process ignoring the indubitable events unfolding before our eyes.
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