The Secret Guam Study, Second Edition [Hardcover]

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 Guams 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 Guams elected officials. This book explores the origin and fate of this important and previously undisclosed study of Guams political status.Howard P. Willens (Author)
Howard P. Willenswas 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 Presidents 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.

Dirk A. Ballendorf (Author)
The late Dirk A. Ballendorf