An anecdote recounts the 1985 official trip to Washington, DC where State Secretary George Shultz asked Lee to convince President Ronald Reagan that his old friend Ferdinand Marcos was then the problem of the Philippines, not the solution.

• 李光耀叙述他在1985年到华盛顿作正式访问时，当时的美国国务卿舒尔茨要求他说服里根总统，告诉后者他的老朋友马可斯是菲律宾问题的症结所在，不是解决问题的答案。