Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of American Policy

by Raymond Bonner

Waltzing with a Dictator is a startling report on America's twenty-year alliance with the "conjugal dictatorship" of Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda. It is a story of power and greed abroad and ideological warfare in Washington over America's support of one of the world's most avaricious rulers.

Totally engrossing and impeccably documented, Waltzing with a Dictator contains never-before-told details of the incredible lifestyle of Imelda; of the imprisonment and assassination of Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino; of the Marcoses' crony capitalism that drained the country of between $5 and $10 billion. Bonner provides the most complete public account ever of Marcos's declaration of martial law in 1972: the events he staged to justify his seizure of power, what Washington knew and why it tragically looked the other way as democracy was mugged in America's former colony. Finally, Bonner recounts in gripping detail the eventual downfall of Marcos, the role of Americans in helping Corazon Aquino, and the split within the Reagan Administration over support for Marcos.

In the tradition of The Best and the Brightest, the prizewinning author and former New York Times correspondent Raymond Bonner provides a remarkable view of foreign policy in the making. Drawing on nearly 3,000 previously classified U.S. government documents, Bonner creates a gripping narrative featuring the men and women who set the course of U.S. policy toward the Philippines for two decades. Through them, he explains why and how such collusion with Marcos evolved. He also addresses the broad question of why America, to its detriment, chooses to embrace dictators, be they Batista, Diem, Somoza, the shah, or Marcos.

Every American president from Lyndon Johnson to Ronald Reagan propped up Marcos because, each one said, Marcos was America's friend in the strategically located archipelago in the Pacific. As they saw it, he protected America's military bases, enhanced the profits of American businesses, and stood tough against communism.

Bonner reveals that in the long run, however, Marcos's rile worked against America's best interests; that he was in fact the cause of the growth of communism, political instability, and the country's economic collapse. And accurate predictions of the course Marcos would take and the disastrous consequences for American interests had been articulated by members of the State Department and intelligence officials in Manila and Washington. Who those critics were and why their warnings went unheeded are the subject of the author's ground-breaking investigation.

Waltzing with a Dictator is foreign-policy reporting at its finest.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Asia

533 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

After graduating from Stanford Law School and serving in the U. S. Marine Corps (including a tour in Vietnam), Raymond Bonner practiced public interest law for several years before turning to journalism. He has been a foreign correspondent and investigative reporter for The New York Times, a staff writer at The New Yorker, and has written for The New York Review of Books. He has reported from more than a hundred countries. He is the author of four books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a shared Pulitzer, and the Louis M. Lyon award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism from the Nieman Fellows at Harvard.

Reviews

[Elizabeth Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lived in the Philippines from 1974 through 1978, during the peak of Ferdinand Marcos' reign. It was amazing to read about America's handling of this nut, and all the events that happened around me while we were living in Manila. Ambassador Sullivan went to our church. I remember our driver having an accident with Marcos' son's car (his name was Ferdinand, Jr., but they called him Bong-Bong!) Very interesting read.

[walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watch as five American presidents ignore gross corruption and herald it as a showcase of democracy!

[Gus Breymann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as soon as it was published in 1987. Two portions of it remain particularly interesting. First, there was the shadowy role of James Rafferty, whose primary job in the U. S. Embassy in Manila appeared to have been to carry out any and every request of First Lady Imelda Marcos, the Steel Butterfly, to keep her and President Marcos happy. Rafferty was the Embassy's fixer. Ambassador Sullivan didn't like him, and fired him, but Ambassador Byroade relied on him to him carry out tasks no one else would.

Second, Bonner concludes that the weight of the evidence (in 1987, mind you) was that Imelda Marcos and her brother, Kokoy Romualdez, were behind the assassination of Benigno Aquino at the Manila airport in 1983. Much additional evidence about the assassination has come to light since Bonner's excellent book.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Filipino should read this book. An eye-opening work on the many horrific abuses that took place during the Marcos dictatorship.

[Paul A · Rating 4 out of 5]

My parents came to the United States in 1989, three years after Ferdinand Marcos, leader of the New Society, was removed from power. In all the years that I've known them, we never spoke about their experiences growing up under Marcos's regime - until now. As a first-generation Filipino-American, I know very little about my home country's history and even less about the involvement of the country I was born in with the country my parents were from. Waltzing With A Dictator gave me an eye-opening account of how the United States dealt with not only the Philippines, but with its friends and allies. I was stunned to read about how the US endorsed and supported a regime that plundered its nation and turned a democracy into a kleptocracy, all in the name of protecting its own interests at the expense of the people whose interests the US purports to serve. Now, almost thirty years since his removal from power, we see the effect that its policies have had on my family's country and we can only hope that democracy and the will of the people will continue to be served.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. I'm remiss for not having read it a decade ago, before serving a tour at the U.S. Embassy in Manila. But better late than never. In the book, little Bong Bong is getting bespoke tours of the Kennedy Space Center, now Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. (Bong Bong) is President of the Philippines. Oh, and villain number three in the book--Johnny Enrile, the man who shat on democracy in the Philippines--is not only still alive (so is Imelda; I used to see her walking to church), but he's a member of BBM's cabinet. Outrageous.

If you think this is all an anachronistic legacy of the Cold War, think again. The United States still myopically supports pro-American dictators that brutalize their own people. Case in point? Egypt. Read David Kilpatrick's excellent book Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East. It's a similar story, just one in which not as many pages have yet been turned.

Finally, let me close with a caveat. While the story Bonner tells is a compelling one, his angle, as he freely admits, is a narrow one, more about Washington than Manila. The U.S. was undoubtedly one of the biggest players in the entirety of the 20 year Marcos saga, but it wasn't the only one. This book magnifies that role for due inspection. At the same time, the Philippines was just one small part of a larger U.S. foreign policy. What this book gives in close-to-the-ground reportage, it takes away from the larger geopolitical relations that so dominated the era. (c) Jeffrey L. Otto, October 6, 2022

[Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book provides a fascinating insight into American Foreign Policy, the inner workings of its bureaucracy, and the political landscape that revolved around the “Special Friendship” during the period preceding Marcos’ presidency until he was deposed in 1986. It is provides details about how the US coddled Marcos and how democracy was curtailed in the furtherance of US interests and links it to the experience of other dictatorships that the US propped up - The lingering effects of which is still felt in various degrees within those countries. It tells the story more from an American perspective and takes into account a variety of sources including investigations undertaken by government, the academe and the press that can only happen in America - which is ironic.

[Michael David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bonner, in no uncertain terms, shows the close relationship between the US and the Marcoses. Through Marcos's travesty of democracy, the US had been there to hold his hand until they themselves realized that Marcos was the sole reason that Communism bloomed in the Philippines. His repression and corruption knocked the Filipino plebeian to such an extent that they learned to fight back.

The only people who think Marcos was a hero are those who benefited from his caciquism. Most of the Filipinos suffered. Most are still suffering.

[JJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well documented book about 25 years of Philippine-US relations

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smart and informative but gets really repetitive and predictable about two-thirds of the way in. I Skipped about 100 pages and felt like I got what I needed.

[Killer Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.08 overall rating

[Kaye]

it was amazing. the time of martial law in the philippines. true, whatever decisions America will make will affect countries worldwide. And sadly, even the democratic country like philippines.