On March 13, 1971, Nixon pushed things forward by formally appointing Franklin Haydn Williams as his Personal Representative to the Micronesian political status negotiations, with the rank of ambassador (Willens, 2002, p. 25). Williams was a former assistant secretary of defense. During their initial meeting at Hana, Hawaii, the Department of Defense revealed its land requirements for Guam and the TTPI. Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird advised Williams that the strategic interests of the Unites States were to implement “defense-in-depth” in the western Pacific, carry out treaty commitments, defend lines of communication through the central Pacific, and maintain “a credible nuclear and conventional deterrent to armed aggression” against the United States, its allies, and countries considered vital to its security. Defense wanted land in the Marshalls, Palau and the Marianas that would be “sovereign American soil.” In the Marianas, Defense was interested in a multiservice base on Tinian. They wanted the whole island, but would settle for the northern part and joint-use of the harbor.
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On April 12, 1972, Ambassador Franklin Haydn Williams formally announced, “that my Government is willing to respond affirmatively to the request that has been formally presented to us today to enter into separate negotiations with the representatives of the Marianas in order to satisfy a desire which the Joint Committee has already recognized,” (Willens, 2000, p. 245). Williams, obviously authorized by Washington, D.C., had thrown out the United Nations Visiting Missions’ refusal to allow the Marianas to enter into separate negotiations from the rest of the TTPI. This was a huge breakthrough for the people of the CNMI who had fought so long and hard for citizenship and self-determination.
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In preparations for sovereign negotiations, the Marianas District Legislature created the Marianas Political Status Commission on May 13, and it was approved by the district administrator on May 19, 1972. The law authorized the Northern Marianas Political Status Commission to negotiate with the United States, to perform public education, to hire consultants, to study alternative forms of democratic internal government, and to make periodic reports.
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The Northern Marianas Political Status Commission held its first meeting on September 7, 1972. To prevent a possible problem with Guam political leaders, Haydn Williams had only been authorized to help create a political status for the Northern Mariana Islands that would be similar to the organic act that Guam had received from Congress. However, when the first plenary session of the Marianas political-status negotiations opened on December 13, 1972, at Saipan’s Mt. Carmel school auditorium, the Northern Mariana negotiator laid out their fundamental issues, including their “totally new” concept of mutual consent (Willens, 2002, p. 2nd Marianas History Conference 2013 ・ !437