MacArthur briefing the press after signing the Executive Order.
Executive Order 10449 was issued on May 29th, 1955 by President Douglas MacArthur. This executive order showed the US intention to annexed the Dutch Antilles as a territory of the United States.
Background[]
After the 1946 Dutch Political Crisis with the Communists seizing power in the Netherlands, the Dutch Monarchy along with the rest of the Dutch Government went into exile on the island of Curaçao in the city of Willemstad, of the Dutch East Indies. Even with the support of the United States and London Treaty Organization, the Dutch government would struggle to maintain itself without loans from it's allies. In 1955 the Dutch government would invite the U.S to house troops on their islands, the invitation was prompted by the fear that the Cuban Revolution would inspire the indigenous people of the Dutch Antilles to revolt against the Dutch government in exile and form independent socialist nations.
Annexation[]
Once US troops arrived on the islands McArthur would sign the order on May 29th, 1955. He cited the inability of the Dutch government to sustain itself without American aid and the necessity for the US to fight communism directly in the Caribbean, something which continued ineffective Dutch governance in the Antilles would undermine. Sixteen days later US troops would take over the Dutch Antilles, and seventeen days later on July 1st Congress recognized the annexation would sign the American Antilles Act which merged the US Virgin Islands and the newly acquired Dutch Antilles into the American Antilles territory.