The Secret Guam Study, Second Edition

On February 1, 1975, National Security Adviser Henry A. Kissinger informed the Departments of Defense, Interior, and State that President Gerald R. Ford had decided that the United States “should seek agreement with Guamanian representatives on a commonwealth relationship no less favorable than that which we are negotiating with the Northern Marianas.” This presidential decision was based on a year-long classified study by these agencies, which concluded that the national security and defense interests of the United States required that Guam’s legitimate complaints about its political status be promptly addressed. Two years later, when President Ford left office in January 1977, this directive remained unimplemented and unknown to Guam’s elected officials. This book explores the origin and fate of this important and previously undisclosed study of Guam’s political status.

Howard P. Willens was a managing director of Wilsie Co., LLC. Mr. Willens practiced law in Washington D.C. in both the public and private sectors. He served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice, assistant counsel to the Warren Commission, and executive director of the President’s Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia. Mr. Willens was retained by the Marianas Political Status Commission to represent it in negotiations with the United States regarding their future political status (1972-1976) and served as counsel to the First Marianas Constitutional Convention (1976) and the Third Marianas Constitutional Convention (1995-1996). Mr. Willens co-authored two books about United States policy in Micronesia and the negotiations between the Northern Marianas Islands and the United States that resulted in the Covenant, which established its current commonwealth status. He was a fellow of the Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of Guam.

The late Dirk A. Ballendorf was a tenured professor of History and Micronesia Area Studies at the University of Guam. Dr. Ballendorf first came to Guam in 1961 on his way to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. He served as the Director of the Peace Corps program in Palau and as President of the community college in Pohnpei (now the College of Micronesia). Dr. Ballendorf earned his doctoral degree at Harvard. He was a member of the faculty of the University of Guam since 1979 and served as the Acting Director of the Micronesian Area Research Center. Dr. Ballendorf authored two books and a number of articles and monographs on the history of Guam and Micronesia.