HOW GOOD IS THE ARMY?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301890041-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 41
• Publication Date: February 28, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25 :CIA-RDP90-009658000301890041-9
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How Good Is the Army?
The Philippine army's refusal to fight
for Ferdinand Marcos was the key fac-
tor in a bloodless transfer of power few
believed possible, but it also raises con-
cern among Pentagon experts whether
its troops will prove any more intrepid
in battling communist insurgents.
Credit for the peaceful transition
shook! not be attributed to Marcos' hu-
manitarian impulses, according to Pen-
tagon sources. They say his orders to
elite Ranger units to attack the military
rebels at Camp Crame were refused,
raising a question: Were the Rangers
making a poetical statement or were
they revealing a lack of discipline?
That is one of many questions asked
in Washington about Corazon Aquino's
new regime. Did Aquino mean it dur-
ing her campaign when she repeatedly
promised to remove "eventually" U.S.
bases? [n the words of one administra-
tion official, could "crony capitalism"
be replaced by "crony socialism"?
Even those Reagan officials who
were most worried by the tilt against
Marcos are overjoyed that he was
forced out without civil war and with
the army intact. But they also realize
this: Though ridding his country of its
authoritarian ruler was surely the
beginning of solving Philippine prob-
lems, asolution requires much more.
There is no certainty Agtrino's army
will be more effective than Marcos'.
Analysts at the Pentagon see perhaps
half of the New People's Army guerril-
las responding to Vice President-Prime
Minister Salvador Laurel's amnesty
offer. The ren>