A rare American decolonization struggle. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The stamp today is oversized and from the early 50s. That is a good sign that the aim is the foreign collector, mainly in the USA. At the time the Philippines was the recipient of a great deal of foreign aid, mainly from the USA. It was also asking for more to deal with a communist insurgency, the Hukbalahap, (the Huks). The picture of the harvest paints a picture of aid being used wisely to improve the lot of the rural peasant and thereby lessen the appeal of the communists. A new aid package was given in 1951 so the stamp was successful. Philippines earns double points for implying that the government was paying for the program.
Todays stamp is issue A102, a 5 centavo stamp issued by the Republic of the Philippines on March 1, 1951. It was part of a three stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the governments peace fund. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.
The USA granted independence to the Philippines on July 4th 1946. Interestingly Philippines celebrates independence in June relating back to the break from Spain in 1898. The government was elected but corrupt with a string of ineffectual presidents. A small communist rebellion started after the government refused to hear the grievances of the peasants. The Huk rebels were lead by veterans of the struggle against the Japanese. The Philippines had yet to enact a land reform to free the peasants from large plantations with absentee landlords.
The aid pouring in from the USA was both civilian and military. The military aid was directed by a former OSS operative then an Air Force Captain named Edward Lansdale. He became close with Ramon Magsaysay first when he was Defense Minister and later as President of the Philippines. Some sources say they were friends and others say that Lansdale physically beat Magsaysay to get him to do the USA’s bidding. Speak softly and carrying a big stick has always been a USA ideal after all. Either way the Huk rebellion subsided but never fully went away.
President Magsaysay later died in a plane crash and Lansdale went on to work out of the USA embassy in Saigon, South Vietnam. His work there was rumored to be the basis for the Graham Greene’s novel “The Quiet American.” He is also rumored to be the basis for the character of Col. Hilindale in the book “The Ugly American”. Oliver Stone also has a Lansdale like character dressed like a tramp on JFK’s route in Dallas circa 1963. He apparently got around.
My drink is empty. I have been somewhat sarcastic about Col. Lansdale and he certainly seems to be at the center of a few conspiracy theories. Remember though that the USA was handing out large checks to these countries that certainly did not have to take the money. Isn’t it better that someone was there fighting that the USA got some value for all it’s generosity? Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.