Clark Air Base was originally established as Fort Stotsenburg in Sapang Bato, Angeles, Pampanga in 1903 under control of the American U.S. Army. The nearby municipality of Mexico, Pampanga, was settled by an earlier tranche of colonizers from the Americas this time from Mexico albeit during the Spanish era. A portion of Fort Stotsenburg was officially set aside for the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps and named Clark Field in September 1919 after Harold M. Clark, who died in a seaplane crash in the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal Zone on May 2, 1919. Clark later served as a landing field for U.S. Army Air Corps medium bombers and accommodated half of the heavy bombers stationed in the Philippines during the 1930s. It was very large for an air field of its day, and in the late summer and fall of 1941, many aircraft were sent to Clark in anticipation of a war with Imperial Japan. However, most of them were destroyed on the ground during an air raid nine hours after the Pearl Harbor attack. The base was attacked by Japanese forces on December 8, 1941 destroying dozens of aircraft and the base was evacuated on December 24. American forces on Bataan and Corregidor fell on April 9, 1942 leading a few days later to the brutal Bataan Death March. Clark became a major center for Japanese air operations throughout the war. Japanese aircraft flying out of Clark participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle of the Second World War and by criteria of Gross-Tonnage Sunk, the largest in history. During the war, Allied prisoners on the Bataan Death March passed by the main gate of Clark Air Base as they followed the railway tracks north towards Camp O'Donnell. During October through January 1945 American air raids damaged or destroyed over 1500 Japanese aircraft. On January 31, American forces regained possession of Clark Field after three months of fierce fighting to liberate the Philippines. It was immediately returned to U.S. Army Air Forces control. Clark grew into a major American air base during the Cold War, as a launching pad for the Korean War and serving as an important logistics hub during the Vietnam War. The U.S. bases became a political issue in the Philippines during the 1960s, which saw a resurgence of Filipino nationalism, especially among students. A major flashpoint in the issue was the November 25, 1964 fatal shooting by off-duty US Airman First Class Larry D. Cole of 14 year old Rogelio Balagtas, one of several boys who were scavenging discarded shell casings from a firing range at Clark Air Base. It was further heightened by the shooting of 21 year old Filipino laborer Glicerio Amor by US Navy Gunner's Mate 3/E Michael Moomey in Subic Naval Base on June 10, 1969. These two incidents were later combined and dramatized in the 1976 Filipino film "Minsa'y Isang Gamu-gamo." By the time Ferdinand Marcos was inaugurated as the Tenth President of the Philippines on December 30, 1965, the bases agreement between the Philippines and the US was nearly two decades old, and the continued presence of Clark and the other United States bases in the Philippines helped shape the tone of the relationship between the two countries. All five of the American presidents from 1965 to 1985 were unwilling to jeopardize the US–Marcos relationship, mainly because they felt a need to protect and retain the bases in order to project power in Asia and the Asia-Pacific. Marcos managed to hold on to power for 21 years despite Martial Law and the many human rights violations perpetuated by his administration, and the negative international press that came with it all, by manipulating the U.S. military's dependence on the bases.