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involved at once. We had to decide if we were ready. Stimson said, “The plan for the Philippines is absolutely letter perfect. The Philippines are indefensible. We have always known it. Every army officer in the United States above the rank of lieutenant is familiar with the plan for the handling of the Philippine situation in case of war. It's been a matter of War College study and development for over twenty-five or thirty years. There is a standard plan and every officer above the rank of lieutenant knows what that is. We shift our army around and you never know who's going to be in command of various outposts, but everybody, not only those in the Philippines now, but anyone who has ever headed for the Philippines knows this plan. It will operate. When you say, ‘Can we handle the Philippines?' the answer is that we shall have to abandon the Philippines.” Everybody knew that. That had to be. They could not be defended.

There was some discussion of MacArthur's being out there trying to revamp the Philippine Army. That was spoken of with satisfaction. That was an excellent post and his work was spoken of with satisfaction. Everyone felt we had a competent commander there and an exceptionally competent group of officers there who knew what to do and how to do it. No one spoke of all this with pleasure. I learned with horror from the month of Henry Stimson that the US Army had never expected to defend the Philippines. It had never crossed my mind that there had been a realistic acceptance of that