THE PHILIPPINES: Biggest Base

The U.S. last week unveiled a colossal monument, carved from a mountaintop and scooped out of the surrounding sea, to its determination to ring Communist China with bases. Sixty miles northwest of Manila, overlooking the calm blue wa ters of Bataan's Subic Bay, the U.S. flag was raised over land that only five years ago was an impenetrable mixture of mountain, swamp and jungle, swarming with pythons. The new Cubi Point Naval Air Station is the Navy's largest air station in Asia, and a major addition to SEATO's chain of defense.

Started in 1951 during the Korean war, the job of building the base involved the greatest earth-moving project since the Panama Canal: 85 feet of solid earth and rock were hacked from the top of Mount Maritan, and millions of tons of coral rock were dredged from the nearby China Sea.

A construction force of 8,000 men, headed by 2,364 Seabees, worked around the clock on Cubi's 8,000-ft. concrete runway, its deepwater port, its extensive ammunition and storage facilities. Cubi has already cost $47 million, will run to $80 million before it is completed in three years.

Cubi is within striking distance of most of Eastern Asia, would prove an invaluable defense anchor should the U.S. ever be forced to withdraw from Japan and Okinawa. Said Admiral Arthur W. Radford, who first suggested the Cubi base in 1948 and was on hand to dedicate it: "What we do is directed against no nation and no peoples—only against aggression." Replied President Ramon Magsaysay: "Cubi is one more proof that the U.S.

means earnestly to comply with her commitment to keep the Philippines secure."