Exchange of Messages Between the President and President Garcia on the Occasion of Philippine-American Day.
Dear President Garcia:
It gives me great pleasure to reaffirm the close ties between our two countries on this day designated by the late President Magsaysay as Philippine-American Day.
Our two nations share a common heritage. For over six decades we have worked together to create and maintain strong democratic institutions. Our task has not been easy. During the fourth decade we fought side by side to defend our way of life. Now we are challenged by the imperialistic ambitions of a ruthless ideology. It is especially fitting, therefore, that we pause on this day which marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the inauguration of the Commonwealth of the Philippines to rededicate ourselves to the principles of free government and to reaffirm our conviction that we shall eventually have a world in which all men are brothers, and in which the outstretched hand is not that of a tyrant, but the hand of friendship.
Sincerely,
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Note: President Garcia's message follows:
The President
The White House
The Philippine Government has designated November fifteen as Philippine-American Day, primarily as a fitting reminder to the peoples on both sides of the Pacific of the special ties of friendship that have characterized several decades of intimate and close relationship between the Philippines and the United States of America.
To twenty-seven million Filipinos, this date bears additional significance as it also commemorates the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Philippine Commonwealth, the transition period which preceded the final attainment of Philippine independence and which in the minds of Filipinos was the climax and fruit of many years of special Philippine-American relations.
Let this day, therefore, be the occasion for Filipinos and Americans to jointly reiterate their high goals and noble objectives for continued and lasting friendship based on mutual respect. Let this also be the time for a rededication of our common determination to meet and deter further encroachment by Communist imperialism on our accepted free and democratic way of life.
CARLOS P. GARGIA
The messages were released at Augusta, Ca.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Exchange of Messages Between the President and President Garcia on the Occasion of Philippine-American Day. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234579