Editing Ferdinand Marcos (section)

===US foreign policy===
By 1977, the armed forces had quadrupled and over 60,000 Filipinos had been arrested for political reasons. In 1981, Vice President [[George H. W. Bush]] praised Marcos for his "adherence to democratic principles and to the democratic processes".{{refn|name=BushMarcos|group=lower-alpha|There is some disagreement between sources about whether President Bush said ''principle''<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Tony|title=America's Mission: The United States and the Worldwide Struggle for Democracy|year=2012|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-4202-5|page=281}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Shain|first=Yossi|title=Marketing the American Creed Abroad: Diasporas in the U.S. and Their Homelands|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=8pqj8GFCg7MC|page=79}}|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-64225-5|page=79}}</ref> or ''principles''<ref>{{cite book|last=Schmitz|first=David F.|title=The United States and Right-Wing Dictatorships, 1965–1989|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=1EV440YU6toC|page=232}}|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-45512-1|page=232}}</ref><ref name="Jones1983">{{cite journal |last1=Cheevers |first1=Jack |last2=Sherman |first2=Spencer A. |date=June 1983 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=ZOYDAAAAMBAJ|page=15}}|title=The Palace Plot |journal=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]] |page=35 |issn=0362-8841}}</ref>}} No American military or politician in the 1970s ever publicly questioned Marcos' authority to fight communism in South East Asia.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

From the declaration of martial law in 1972 until 1983, the US government provided $2.5 billion in bilateral military and economic aid to Marcos, and about $5.5 billion through multilateral institutions such as the [[World Bank]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Bello, Walden|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40468561|title=Edging toward the Quagmire: The United States and the Philippine Crisis|journal=World Policy Journal|volume=3|issue=1|date=Winter 1985–1986|page=31|jstor=40468561}}</ref>

During the [[Presidency of Jimmy Carter|Carter administration]] (1977–1981) the relationship with the US had soured somewhat when Carter targeted the Philippines in his [[human rights]] campaign. Despite this, the Carter administration provided [[United States military aid|military aid]] to the Marcos regime.<ref>{{cite news |date=February 6, 1978 |title=Carter Asks for No Cut in Arms Aid to Marcos Despite Negative Human-Rights Report |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/02/06/archives/carter-asks-for-no-cut-in-arms-aid-to-marcos-despite-negative.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

A 1979 [[United States Senate|US Senate]] report stated that US officials were aware, as early as 1973, that Philippine government agents were in the United States to harass Filipino dissidents. In June 1981, two anti-Marcos labor activists were assassinated outside a union hall in Seattle. On at least one occasion, CIA agents blocked [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] investigations of Philippine agents.<ref>{{cite book|author=Shalom, Stephen R.|title=Imperial alibis: rationalizing U.S. intervention after the cold war|publisher=[[South End Press]]|year=1993|isbn=978-0-89608-448-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/imperialalibisra0000shal/page/149 149]|url=https://archive.org/details/imperialalibisra0000shal|url-access=registration}}</ref> By 1984, US President [[Ronald Reagan]] started distancing himself from the Marcos regime that he and previous American presidents had strongly supported even during martial law. The United States, which had provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, was crucial in buttressing Marcos's rule over the years,<ref>{{cite news |last=Pace |first=Eric |date=September 29, 1989 |title=Autocrat With a Regal Manner, Marcos Ruled for 2 Decades |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0715FE3A5E0C7A8EDDA00894D1484D81 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120714124930/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0715FE3A5E0C7A8EDDA00894D1484D81 |archive-date=July 14, 2012 |access-date=January 24, 2011 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>