The Philippines was not a regional military power during the Marcos years but neither was it the weakest, with the Armed Forces of the Philippines saying it "was one of the most well-equipped militaries in Asia" at that time. While Marcos did invest a lot in the military during his term, other countries in Asia such as Thailand Cambodia were ahead of the Philippines in terms of military capabilities at that time. The Philippines also depended greatly on the United States for its own external defense then. According to a 2004 paper by Andrew Tan for the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies Singapore, the militaries of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines "could be described as militarily weak, with small numbers of major weapon systems." Tan, a strategic analyst who specializes in defense and security studies, cites "The Military Balance 1974–75" for a snapshot of military capabilities of Southeast Asian states in 1974 that shows the Philippines trailing Thailand in personnel, 274,000 to 396,000. The AFP was also behind the militaries of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Singapore in combat aircraft. The Philippine Air Force had 36 aircraft units in 1974, putting at par with Malaysia. Thailand had 105 combat aircraft. Laos, which was fighting a civil war at the time, had 85 planes, with "most of the combat aircraft consisted of US-supplied T-28 ground attack aircraft," wrote Tan. Singapore had 65 and Cambodia had 64. In a joint 1973 study conducted by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), America's security establishment also said that the "Philippines has little capability to provide material for its armed forces…. All other military material is imported primarily through the US Military Assistance Program." The joint DIA-CIA study noted as well that the Philippine military has been "plagued continuously by serious deficiencies in their supply and maintenance system, including an ineffective accounting system, haphazard distribution, inadequate storage facilities, and poor maintenance." A 2017 article published by the Philippine Star also said US military presence, particularly in Clark and Subic, and the assistance resulting from that presence represented the "biggest weapons in Marcos's arsenal". "Tallano gold" social media propaganda There are social media posts that falsely claim that Marcos and an associate were paid 640,000 metric tons in gold by a client in 1949, supposedly making them the richest men in the world. The gold was supposedly paid to Marcos