Alternate History of Southeast Asia (1975)

An imaginary alternate history visualized and narrated by Anonymous Kabataan

We are in the year 1975, and the Second Indochina War or commonly known as the Vietnam War has come to its end. The People's Army of Vietnam, Pathet Lao, and Khmer Rouge had taken over their countries and successfully toppled the pro-American regimes of South Vietnam, the Kingdom of Laos, and the Kingdom of Cambodia. This communist victory in the Second Indochina War strengthened local communist insurgencies in their nearby Southeast Asian neighbors of Thailand, Nusantara, and the Philippines with the exception of Burma because President Ne Win implemented its independent foreign policy amidst the polarizing Cold War between the forces of communism and capitalism.

Back in the Philippines, the 1971 Philippine Election was conducted where the Nacionalista Party picked incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos as their presidential candidate, and incumbent Vice President Ramon Magsaysay again as vice-presidential candidate. On the side of its rival, the Liberal Party, they picked Jovito Salonga as their presidential candidate while Fernando Lopez was picked as their vice-presidential candidate. At the height of the 1971 Philippine Election, while the Nacionalista Party Convention is holding a proclamation rally in Malolos, Bulacan, a mysterious bomb exploded near the podium where Ferdinand Marcos was speaking. This tragedy fatally injured the presidential candidate in effect, Ferdinand Marcos, and Ramon Magsaysay were sheltered in the nearby hospital. This tragedy would be remembered as the 1971 Malolos Bombing. Several suspicions circled around the investigation bombing but one thing that was universally accepted was that the motive for the bombing was purely political. Five days after the bombing, the authorities found out that the New People's Army was the perpetrator of the 1971 Malolos Bombing, an armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines led by Jose Maria Sison when it was formed on the 23rd of March 1969.

The bombing shocked the nation that it led to the landslide victory of the Nacionalista Party in the 1971 Philippine Elections with again Ferdinand Marcos elected as President, Ramon Magsaysay as Vice President, and Arturo Tolentino being elected again as the Prime Minister. Aside from the 1971 Malolos Bombing, several bombings occurred nationwide like the 1971 Sulu Bombing that happened on the 27th of May, the 1972 Davao and Baguio Bombings that happened on the 2nd of July and 8th of September, and the deadliest 1973 Manila Cathedral Bombing which killed 56 people on the 13th of August with the same perpetrator as the perpetrator of the 1971 Malolos Bombing. With these bombings occurring nationwide, the Philippine Parliament passed a law authorizing the declaration of martial law to be signed and announced by the President of the Philippines. Martial Law was declared on the 24th of August 1973 nationwide where the writ of habeas corpus was suspended.

Back in international politics, when the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was formed uniting North and South Vietnam, its newly-formed government sent its diplomats and representatives to the United Nations and nearby Southeast Asian countries. Notable communist countries around the world recognized the recently unified Vietnam in contrast to the anti-communist countries which refused to recognize it with the exception of the Philippines which recognized Vietnam as a unified socialist country not for political motives but as a political move for the independent Philippine foreign policy. When the diplomatic representatives arrived in Manila, they were welcomed by President Marcos together with Prime Minister Tolentino and discussed foreign policies from which the two countries would benefit. At the conclusion of the bilateral talks, they agreed to sign the Philippine-Vietnamese Mutual Defense Treaty amidst their mutual maritime dispute with the People's Republic of China. Aside from that, they settled an agreement where the Socialist Republic of Vietnam should not aid the New People's Army amidst the nationwide communist rebellion and the nationwide implementation of Martial Law this treaty was named the 1975 Manila Counter-Insurgency Mutual Agreement Treaty.

Back in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge took over the capital city of Phnom Penh, the residents welcomed them with open arms but it did not last, the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot ordered all the residents throughout the country to abandon their lives in cities and towns and then forced them to go to the agrarian communes in the countryside. Anyone who refused to comply with the orders was immediately killed by gunshots. Aside from that, some were imprisoned and then tortured slowly to death. Before the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh, the Khmer Royal Family seek refuge and political asylum in the Philippines which the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Prime Minister Arturo Tolentino welcomed with open arms and provided maximum security for the Khmer Royal Family by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. This scenario also applies to the Lao Royal Family who seeks political asylum where they built the government in exile headquartered in the city of Quezon in the state of Metro Manila.