GARCIA, CARLOS P. Gandhi’s detachment from the political arena suggested incompetence, and his insistence upon advancing technology as a panacea underscored perceptions that he was simply out of touch. Elections held that November resulted in major losses to Congress (I), so Gandhi resigned from office. He remained head of the opposition in parliament, and after November 1989 he supported a coalition government that kept the contentious figure Chandra Shekhar in power. When this arrangement proved untenable after May 1991, new elections were called. Once out of office Gandhi began methodically rebuilding his career and reputation. He campaigned tirelessly throughout the country until polls in 1991 suggested that Congress (I) would carry forthcoming elections by its biggest margins ever. Then, while visiting Tamil Nadu in south India on May 21, 1991, Gandhi was killed by a suicide terrorist. Thus ended a political dynasty that had dominated India’s political landscape since 1947. Further Reading Dalal, Ramesh. Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassination: The Mystery Unfolds. London: Sangam, 2001. Kapur, Harish. “India’s Foreign Policy under Rajiv Gandhi.” Round Table no. 304 (1987): 469–480. Kreisberg, Paul H. “Gandhi at Midterm.” Foreign Affairs 65, no. 5 (1987): 1055–1076. Mehta, Ved. Rajiv Gandhi and Rama’s Kingdom. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Merchant, Minhaz. Rajiv Gandhi, the End of a Dream. New York: Viking, 1991. Sen Gupta, Bhabani. Rajiv Gandhi, a Political Study. New York: Kennark, 1989.
Garcia, Carlos P. (1896–1971) president of the Philippines Carlos Polestico Garcia was born on November 4, 1896, in Talibon, Bohol Province, the Philippines, the son of a municipal mayor. He attended Silliman University and read law at the Philippine Law School before being called to the bar in 1923. Garcia subsequently turned down a legal practice to teach high school, but in 1925 he successfully ran for congress from Bohol. After three terms in office he served as governor of Bohol Province, 1933–41. Garcia subsequently gained election to the Philippine senate but his career was interrupted by the
165
Japanese invasion of December 1941. Following the American surrender of May 1942 Garcia was hunted by Japanese authorities because of his refusal to cooperate with their military occupation. He joined guerrilla forces until the end of World War II, and in August 1945 he resumed his senate career. Garcia then arrived in the United States to lobby for Philippine war damage claims and also served as a delegate to the newly constituted United Nations in San Francisco. Active in senate affairs at home, he rose to minority leader and chaired influential committees on government, the military, justice, and foreign affairs. Garcia was also active as vice president of the Nacionalista Party and expounded nationalistic views of defense, economics, and foreign policy. In November 1953 Garcia was elected vice president of the Philippines with presidential candidate RAMÓN MAGSAYSAY and also held the portfolio of foreign affairs secretary. He did prodigious work in helping to define the role of the Philippines in postwar Asia. His most important accomplishment was in hammering out a peace treaty with Japan (still technically at war with the Philippines) and arranging a schedule for reparations. He also attended the Geneva Conference on Asian matters, attacking communists and supporting United States policy throughout the Far East. Back home, he continued finessing several foreign policy matters by presiding over the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) Conference in 1954, which resulted in an eight-member military alliance to dissuade communist expansion. Stridently anticommunist and fiercely nationalist in outlook, Garcia consistently supported better relations with the United States while simultaneously cultivating close ties to other Asian nations. The evolving cold war found the Philippines squarely in the Western camp and a stalwart ally in the struggle against communism. Garcia’s political career took an unexpected turn on March 17, 1957, when President Magsaysay died in a plane crash. He was sworn into office that same day, and in the scheduled elections the following November he handily defeated four other well-known candidates. To secure his victory Garcia took the politically unprecedented move of selecting vice presidential candidate DIOSDADO P. MACAPAGAL from the opposition Liberal Party. Once elected he maintained a strict program of austerity to weed out corruption, put the brakes on a thriving black market, and stimulated the economy. However, Garcia