Seek agreement with Guamanian representatives on a commonwealth arrangement no less favorable than that which we are negotiating with the Northern Marianas. After Ford had reviewed it, Kissinger, in a memo with the report, said that the President agreed with the recommendations and instructed an Under Secretaries Committee to: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger sent the report to President Gerald Ford. Commonwealth status appeared to meet the varying positions of Guamanians and the federal government, particularly the defense needs of the US, according to the report. The leaders of Guam also mistakenly believed that Guam would have to fund infrastructure improvements in the NMI and did not believe they could afford to do so.Īfter reunification failed, the 196-page federal study concluded that some status change would have to occur in Guam. The Guam study determined that commonwealth status would be best for the island, reflecting the fact the NMI was negotiating the same status. Reunification of the Mariana Islands was put forth in a 1969 referendum, which was accepted by the NMI but rejected by Guam, partly because of the role individuals from the NMI had played in facilitating the Japanese occupation of Guam during World War II and other more complicated economic, political and social considerations. Guam, on the other hand, was under US rule except for two and a half years during World War II when the island was occupied by Japan. After World War I, the northern islands became territories of Japan until they were overtaken by the US toward the end of World War II. The islands were politically separated in 1899 when Guam became a US territory and the northern islands of Rota, Tinian and Saipan were bought by Germany. The federal governmental agencies administering Guam knew that there was growing dissatisfaction on Guam with its territorial status position. People on Guam held mixed views as to what the island’s political status should be and on reunification with the NMI. The Northern Marianas chose to be a US Commonwealth. In the early 1970s each of the island groups negotiated with the US to achieve a more permanent political status. The Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), along with Palau, Yap, Kosrae, Chuuk, Pohnpei and the Marshall Islands, had been a part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) created by the United Nations and administered by the US since 1947. Their recommendations, however, were shelved without the people of Guam knowing about it until 30 years later. Known as the “Guam study,” in 1975 the task force recommended that Guam become a US Commonwealth as well. Federal study recommends Commonwealth Status for Guam in 1975Ī United States federal inter-agency task force carried out a study in 1973-74 to look at Guam’s political status at the same time the US was negotiating commonwealth status with the Northern Mariana Islands. Unknown to Guam leaders at the time, however, the federal government was considering granting commonwealth status to Guam as far back as the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, Guam attempted to obtain commonwealth status with the United States, but was unsuccessful in getting the Guam Commonwealth Act approved by the US Congress. Pacific island territories, including Guam, followed suit and began to visualize what a change in political status could mean for the region and its people. In the 1960s the United Nations issued Resolution 1514 (XV) “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,” as a call to end colonization around the world. As a result, many nations began the process of decolonization as territories negotiated new political statuses and exercised their rights of sovereignty and self-government.
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