[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 76 (Thursday, June 5, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE REPUBLIC OF THE 
                  MARSHALL ISLANDS: A 50TH ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 5, 1997

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing House Concurrent 
Resolution   , a resolution that reconfirms the importance of our 
bilateral relationship with the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
  April 2, 1997 was the 50th anniversary of a special political 
relationship and strategic partnership between the United States and 
the people of the Marshall Islands. On that date in 1947, the Security 
Council of the United Nations approved the Trusteeship Agreement for 
the Former Japanese Mandated Islands.
  This agreement was negotiated by the Truman administration and gave 
the United States strategic control of a vast area of the Pacific 
formerly held by Japan as a League of Nations Mandate. What became 
known under U.S. law as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands 
[TTPI] was the only U.N. trusteeship out of eleven created after WWII 
classified by the Security Council as ``strategic.''
  Recognition of the strategic nature of the U.S. administration of the 
TTPI was appropriate in light of the fact that in 1946, while the 
islands were still under military occupation following the end of 
hostilities that ended Japanese rule, the U.S. already had commenced 
its vital nuclear weapons testing program at Bikini in the Marshall 
Islands.
  In 1946 President Truman had sent a young Congressman from Montana on 
an inspection trip to the region. Mike Mansfield came back and argued 
eloquently on the floor of the House that the Congress should approve 
the trusteeship agreement with the United Nations because the U.S. 
national interest would be served by strategic control of the islands. 
He was right.
  The 2,000 Marshall Islands became the focal point of the U.S. 
strategic program. In addition to the nuclear testing program at Bikini 
and Enewetak from 1946 to 1958 the United States has maintained one of 
its most vital military installations anywhere on earth in the Marshall 
Islands throughout the second half of this century; the Mid-Pacific 
Missile Testing Range at Kwajalein Atoll
  Thus, while the U.S. also has maintained relations with the other 
island groups in the region, the relationship with the Marshall Islands 
has been a special strategic partnership. This was recognized in the 
bilateral agreements between the U.S. and the Marshall Islands which 
were concluded at the time the U.N. trusteeship was terminated based on 
entry into force of the Compact of Free Association.
  For example, the separate bilateral agreements with the Republic of 
the Marshall Islands included not only the military base rights at 
Kwajalein, but the agreement establishing the framework within which 
the U.S. would continue after termination of the trusteeship to address 
the effects of the nuclear testing program on the people of the 
Marshall Islands and their homelands. For these island peoples, the 
nuclear testing program is a legacy that looms as large in their lives 
as WWII does in the American experience.
  In other words, it is a legacy of fortitude in the face of a threat 
to survival itself. The U.S. nuclear testing program in the cold war 
era, far more than the fact that major battles of WWII itself had taken 
place in the Marshalls, was the defining experience of the Marshallese 
people in this century.
  Obviously, there have been legal claims and controversies arising 
from the intrusion of the nuclear age into the world of the islanders. 
But this resolution recognizes that out of the adversity there was also 
forged an alliance that has been sustained throughout the years. The 
Marshallese people had the wisdom to recognize that the United States 
was playing a vital role in the maintenance of international peace and 
security, and although they demanded justice and the redress of 
injuries as all people have the right to do, the Marshallese people and 
their leaders never turned their back on the U.S. when we needed them 
as a strategic partner.

  During the twilight years of the cold war the Marshall Islands stood 
by the United States even though they had far more reasons--if they had 
wanted them--to move out of alignment with this nation than many of 
those governments which did just that. The Marshalls, however, never 
viewed the close political and strategic partnership with the U.S. as 
an unmanageable constraint on their cultural and political identity as 
a nation.
  Thus, the relationship between the Republic of the Marshall Islands 
and the United States represents not only a successful strategic 
partnership, but a successful process of decolonization consistent with 
the goals of the U.N. trusteeship system. This is a foreign policy 
success of which the Congress and the people of the United States 
should be proud. Understanding and sustaining this success may have 
significance for the U.S. in its relations with other peoples and 
nations as well, and this should not be overlooked.
  This is a special relationship which we cannot allow to be neglected 
or unduly diminished as a result of ill-conceived policies which do not 
take into account the legacy of the past and the prospects for the 
future. Narrow thinking based on short-term priorities should not 
control the determination of how this relationship will be managed as 
the first term of the Compact of Free Association comes to an end. 
Congress must take responsibility to exercise oversight with respect to 
the formulation of a long-term policy for our bilateral relationship 
with the Marshall Islands.
  As an ally and strategic partner, the Republic of the Marshall 
Islands has paid a uniquely high price to define its national interest 
in a manner that also has been compatible with vital U.S. national 
interests. That is what an alliance is in its most essential form, and 
that is what Congress will recognize by adopting this resolution. I 
urge my colleagues to support House Concurrent Resolution   .

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