The CNMI’s favorite Presidents

As we celebrate President’s day today, we think of such great American Presidents as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. We think of these great men, the great architects of freedom and liberal democracy. We are reminded of the great sacrifices they have made in the name of liberty, and how their great American achievements have truly inspired the world to become more happy, rich, safe, and free.

But of all America’s Presidents, some stand out more strikingly than the rest. Some have made far greater contributions to peace and freedom. Some Presidents are better than others.

When it comes to the CNMI, for example, three Presidents stand above the rest: Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, and Ronald W. Reagan. Of all the U.S. Presidents from 1944 to the present, these three Presidents have probably made the greatest contributions to our islands.

Woodrow Wilson, who was the U.S. President during the Great War, should probably be mentioned as well. Even though he died before we were liberated in June of 1944, his “14 points” and his democratic, self-governing ideals live on long after his League of Nations initiatives had failed. His preference for local self-government over colonialism were particularly commendable.

But we should look at those U.S. Presidents who actually played a direct role in the post-war administration of our islands. Of these Presidents, only Nixon, Ford, and Reagan tend to stand out.

True, Franklin Delano Roosevelt liberated these islands in 1944, under the command of Admiral Chester Nimitz. But that was a purely strategic military decision. Saipan could not have been bypassed. There is not much nobility or morality in a purely strategic decision that any American President, including Harry S. Truman, would have made.

Truman kept us under the American flag. It is not clear what else he may have done. Our indigenous people were still recovering from the ravages of war. Truman may have helped some, but the NMI was still deeply impoverished.

President Eisenhower turned the NMI into a major CIA base. This was in the 1950s, during the “NTTU” days. The NMI was an isolated military outpost. Our people did not benefit from the closed off Ike days John F. Kennedy inspired us by becoming America’s first Catholic President. The NMI was–and still is–predominantly Catholic, so we were very proud of Mr. Kennedy. For years, his bust was displayed in front of Mount Carmel Church. He also sent in the Peace Corps, which really did not help us very much.

Lyndon B. Johnson–what did LBJ ever do for the Northern Marianas? He passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which gave us minority rights and paved the way for affirmative action. I am not sure that was such a good idea. We now have the EEOC, as an outgrowth of that act, harming our free enterprise system.

Richard Nixon went to China. He paved the way for normalized relations with the Chinese. He was the only one who could have done it at the time. Nixon gave us the garment industry, which is keeping our local economy alive. Thank you, Mr. Nixon!

Gerald Ford signed the Covenant Agreement, which paved the way for our economic and political transformation. Ford made us more independent. He gave us the chance to be rich and free.

Jimmy Carter did not do very much, other than to keep Ford’s Covenant Agreement intact.

Reagan gave us United States citizenship in November of 1986. I still remember the day.

Bush was OK. Nothing special.

Clinton is now trying to take President Ford’s achievement away–to strip us of our local self-government.