Game:

Hearts of Iron IV (2016)

Duration: 1:34

5,812 views

142

Here's a new proper TNO custom event! This one follows a "Total OFN" victory in the scramble for the Philippines, in which the US installs the Commonwealth government-in-exile back in power, under prominent statesman Carlos P. Romulo. Yet while the Americans could reliably count on him to lead the freed nation, he has his own ideas for the country. Ones that would make Filipinos relative equals in the eyes of the world, rather than "just another" OFN appendage.

In OTL, Romulo (1898-1985) was something of a Renaissance man. While he never became President of the Philippines, at various points been a journalist, writer, diplomat, general, and even President of the UN General Assembly, among others. In TNO, much of this would still remain true, including his warm ties with the US. A crucial difference is that his misgivings over America's seeming inaction with both the Pacific theater and social discrimination would be even more pronounced, fueling a paradoxical mix of admiration and resentment that (though not leading him to hate his benefactors) would spur him to make the Philippines as independent as possible.

For some trivia, the snippets at the beginning are taken from a 1950s educational film about the Philippines ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhQRS_fSXG8 ), and the 1968 film "Manila Open City" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqTxvh4PX9E ), which hilariously used then-contemporary military equipment as stand-ins for WW2 gear. The background audio also incorporates a snippet of MacArthur's speech during the country's formal independence in 1946 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-EzsiYfJ-Q ), and an old Spanish/Mexican song "Filipinas" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvF43AlSjaY ).

As for the actual super event, it's a mix of both the American-era rendition of the Fiipino national anthem ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGR9OlK8OcA ), and the much older "Bayan Ko" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAV44pGgI3o ), originally composed by Constantio de Guzman but popularized in its modern form by Freddie Aguilar by the time of People Power Revolution in 1986 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1bv0rwya9U ). The image is that of the old American Chancery in Manila, which still serves as part of the US Embassy.

The ending clip, meanwhile, is from an old documentary featuring some of the last public footage of Romulo himself ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L6u11uKDjw ).

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