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April 28, 2004
Splendid
Little War; Long Bloody Occupation
Iraq, the US
and an Old Lesson
By WILLIAM LOREN KATZ
Weapons of mass distruction, a slam-dunk war
followed by a no-end-in-sight occupation? We've been here before when a
century ago the U.S. first sent an army overseas to accomplish regime
change and liberate a resource-rich land from tyranny.
It began in February, 1898
when an explosion sunk the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana harbor.
Since Cubans lived under a cruel Spanish colonialism, a pro-war U.S.
press felt free to claim that Spain unleashed a weapon of mass
destruction, and to whip up "Remember the Maine" fever. No weapon was
ever found -- it was a boiler explosion that sank the Maine -- and
though Spain agreed to President McKinley's main demands, Congress
declared war with a promise to free Cuba.
Secretary of State John Hay
called it "a splendid little war" because in less than a hundred days
the U.S. liberated 13 million people and 165,000 square miles of
colonies from Puerto Rico to Guam and the Philippines, and with only
379 combat deaths. But disease and embalmed meat war profiteers sold to
the Army killed another 5,462 U.S. soldiers.
Leading the hawks in 1898 was
a young, flamboyant Teddy Roosevelt, an assistant secretary of the Navy
who claimed war stimulated "spiritual renewal," and the "clear instinct
for racial selfishness." Not a man to hide in the National Guard, TR
personally led his "Rough Riders" at San Juan Hill, and returned from
Cuba with one regret -- "there was not enough war to go around." No w
he was riding to the White House.
For two years General Emilio
Aguinaldo and his freedom-fighting guerilla army had fought Spain's
cruel occupation fully ready to govern a free Philippines. But before
he left for Cuba, TR sent Admiral George Dewey's U.S. fleet to Manila
Bay where it sank the Spanish fleet. Dewey assured Aguinaldo the U.S.
"had come to . . . free the Filipinos from the yoke of Spain." But U.S.
troops landed on Luzon, prevented Aguinaldo from entering Manila, and
Washington appointed a puppet government.
Filipinos first welcomed
Americans as liberators. But in June when Aguinaldo issued a
declaration of independence, the pro-war U.S. press began to demonize
Aguinaldo, and a U.S. general told Congress that Filipinos who wanted
freedom had "no more idea of its meaning than a shepherd dog."
President McKinley said he
spent many sleepless nights agonizing about the Philippines until God
told him to keep the islands and "uplift and civilize and Christianize
them." The President called his program "benevolent assimilation." The
influential San Franciso Argonaut was more candid: "We do not want the
Filipinos. We want the Philippines. The islands are enormously rich,
but unfortunately, they are infested with Filipinos."
A U.S. army of 70,000
[including 6,000 Black troops] was sent to pacify the islands and, as
more than one white soldier said, "just itching to get at the niggers."
General William Shafter told a journalist it might be necessary to kill
half the population to bring "perfect justice" to the other half. After
General Jack Smith promised to turn the Philippines into a "howling
wilderness" most casualties were civilians. Smith defined the foe as
any male or female "ten years and up," and told his soldiers: "I want
no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn
the better it will please me."
U.S. officers encouraged the
use of torture, murder of prisoners, and massacre of villagers,
including women and children. A Kansas soldier wrote "The country won't
be pacified until the niggers are killed off like the Indians." Another
white soldier reported brutal "sights you could hardly believe" and he
reached this conclusion: "A white man seems to forget that he is human."
The U.S. had entered a
quagmire. "The Filipino masses are loyal to Aguinaldo and the
government he leads," conceeded U.S. General Arthur MacArthur. He
thought the foe "needed bayonet treatment for at least a decade." His
time assessment proved prophetic. In early 1901 a U.S. journalist
concluded "that the Filipino hates U.S. . . permanent guerrilla warfare
will continue for years." He reported endless guerilla attacks that
took one or two U.S. lives at a time and created a "spirit of
bitterness in the rank and file of the army." A U.S. Red Cross worker
reported "American soldiers are determined to kill every Filipino in
sight" and said he saw "horribly mutilated Filipino bodies."
In March, 1901 U.S. officers
saw victory when Aguinaldo was captured, agreed to swear allegiance to
the United States, and to persuade his officers to accept amnesty. But
quagmires can sink fond hopes. Six months later guerillas on Samar
attacked a U.S. garrison and massacred 45 U.S. officers and enlisted
men with bolos and bare hands. The occupation's most shocking defeat
exposed U.S. propaganda about a defeated foe and a easy occupation. The
U.S. media comp ared Samar to General Custer at the Little Big Horn,
pro-imperialist editors talked about being "hoodwinked," and The San
Francisco Call reminded Americans "a conquered people" do not remain
conquered for long. "It is utterly foolish to pretend . . . the end is
in sight," admitted General Adna Chaffee.
By 1902 U.S. Senate hearings
and scores of Army court martial trials found that U.S. occupying
forces were guilty of "war crimes." General Robert Hughes admitted he
ordered the burning of villages and murder of women and children. When
asked by a Senator if this was "civilized warfare," he answered, "these
people are not civilized." The Baltimore American wondered why the U.S.
carried out "we went to war to banish."
President Teddy Roosevelt
followed McKinley to the White House and continued to justify the
occupation, dismiss Filipinos as "Chinese half-breeds," and to insist
this was "the most glorious war in our nation's history." Congress
spent $170 million on its occupation.
Mark Twain, two former
presidents and other prominent citizens formed an Anti-Imperialist
League that had tens of thousands attending protest meetings and
signing petitions that denounced U.S. atrocities and imperial designs.
One prominent African American bravely declared:"We shall neither fight
for such a country or with such an army" and many others spoke out as
well. The African American press stood united against a U.S. government
that exported its racist "deviltry" overseas, and some labor unions
began to connect the dots betw een overseas imperialism and government
suppression of strikes at home. 2,800 military actions continued until
1911, took 200,000 Filipino lives, and the U.S. suffered 4,234 combat
deaths. More than a dozen US servicemen defected to Aguinaldo, and half
of these were African Americans although soliders of color comprised
less than ten percent of the US army of occupation.
Filipino independence came in
1945 but bitterness continued with Washington support for brutal
dictators such as Ferdinand Marcos who looted his country for twenty
years. Vice President George Walker Bush arrived in Manila to praise
Marcos' "adherence to democratic principles" and the next year a
massive, nonviolent uprising forced Marcos to flee.
On October 18, 2003 President
George W. Bush came to Manila to promote his war on terrorism. For the
Philippine Congress, he rewrote history when he said: "Together our
soldiers liberated the Philippines."
Our first overseas venture a
hundred years ago offers insights into our occupation of Iraq. People
always prefer self rule to a foreign master. Resisting
self-determination was unpleasant long ago, and it has not and will not
be pleasant now. Presidential lies come around to bite again.
William Loren Katz is the author forty books, and he adapted
this essay from his new book, THE
CRUEL YEARS: AMERICAN VOICES AT THE DAWN OF THE 20TH CENTURY
[Beacon Press, 2003]. His website is: williamlkatz.com
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