From: Michael Goldman  <miklg@acuson.com>
Subject: US and Philippines (Was: Opinion on Japan being "forced" to attack)
Organization: Acuson; Mountain View, California
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 17:39:46 GMT


From Michael Goldman  <miklg@acuson.com>

>Nice euphemisms. "We got the Philippines from Spain."  If that is not
>treating a country as a colony, I don't know what is.  "Wandering into
>the area."  Dewey was in Manila Bay because someone influential in the
>State Department (a friend or close acquaintance of Dewey, sorry,
>don't recall the name) had decided that the Philippines might be up
>for grabs and that it would be nice if the US could get them.  Dewey
>did not "wander" there, he sailed there with a specific goal in mind.

	The person you have in mind was Theodore Roosevelt, Assistant
	Secretary of the Navy.  In getting ready for the Spanish-
	American War, he wanted all forces ready to fight on all
	fronts, so Spanish forces would be tied down in the Pacific
	and not harass US ports or Atlantic forces.

	The US experience as a territorial Imperialist in Asia I count
	as beginning with the acquisition of the Philipines in the
	Spanish-American War.  This brought it face to face with Japan,
	China, European Imperialists in the area, and with its own view
	of itself as being more moral than the other powers of the
	time.

	Most of the following is based on the book "The Spanish War" 
	by G.J.A. O'Toole (1984).

	The Philipines had been a colony of Spain and was bought for
	$20 million as part of the Treaty of Paris with Spain at the
	end of the Spanish-American War of April 22, 1898 to December
	10, 1898.  (Actual hostilities ended August 13th).

	The S-A War came about because of US popular support for the
	Cuban revolutionaries fighting for a Cuba independent of
	Spain.  The Spanish military was trying to remove support for
	the insurgents by forcing all rural dwellers to live in
	concentration camps ("reconcentrado") along the coast.  They
	did not provide food for these people and many died from
	hunger.  Estimates of death vary, but the Spanish estimate was
	400,000.  This outraged the US people and Secretary of the Navy
	T.R. Roosevelt called it extermination.  The Spanish govt had
	recently changed and granted limited political autonomy to the
	Cubans, but Spanish in Cuba, led by officers, rioted in
	protest.  The US sent the battleship Maine to Havana to suggest
	that the officers not make matters worse.  The Maine blew up,
	and the congressional committee investigating it reported that
	a Spanish mine had been responsible.  Evidence reviewed in 1976
	under Admiral Rickover came to the conclusion that the
	explosion was due to engine-room overheating igniting
	ammunition stored in a neighboring compartment.

	The S-A War was so brief and successful, that it left people in
	the US emotionally drunk with their success.  Cuba was set free
	by the treaty, but with restrictions set forth in the Platt
	amendment.  Opinion was deeply divided between expansionists
	and their opponents, with most of the prestigious newspapers
	editorializing on behalf of keeping the Philippines as a
	colony.  Senator George Gray, Democrat of Delaware and a member
	of the peace commission negotiating the treaty telegrammed to
	the US secretary of State:  [pg 384]

	"[To take the Philippines] would be to reverse accepted
	continental policy of the country, declared and acted upon
	throughout our history...Policy proposed introduces us into
	European politics and the entangling alliances against which
	Washington and all American statesmen have protested.  It will
	make necessary a greatly increased military establishment
	and...increase the burden of taxation.

	"Our [war]... was accompanied by a solemn and deliberate
	definition of purpose ...let us simply keep our word."

	The Anti-Imperialist League was formed in November 1898 in the
	Boston office of retired textile manufacturer Edward Atkinson.
	Prominent members included Senator Hoar, Andrew Carnegie, and a
	number of prominent reformers.  It kept up opposition to US
	possession of the Philippines for years.

	The expansionist feeling carried when an attack by Philippine
	insurgents killed a number of US soldiers.  The treaty was
	raified by a 2/3 majority.  There was some expectation that
	this would lead to the US following Germany in taking some
	treaty ports in China.  The UK govt and ruling class welcomed
	the US into the group of imperialists and Rudyard Kipling
	wrote "The White Man's Burden" subtitled "The United States and
	the Philippine Islands."

	President McKinley, who was in office when the Spanish American
	War was fought, has been most widely quoted as giving as his
	reasons for taking the Phillippines as "(1) that we could not
	give them back to Spain...(2) that we could not turn over to
	France or Germany...(3)that we could not leave them to
	themselves - they were unfit for self-government - and they
	would soon have anarchy and misrule...(4) that there was
	nothing left...but...to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and
	civilize and Christianize them..."  (They were already
	Catholic, but to Protestant America this didn't count.)

	This statement needs to be considered as (a) having been
	delivered to visiting Protestant clergymen whose churches were
	already on record in favor of annexation, and (b) coming after
	an extensive speaking tour of the US where he had carefully
	noted that expansionist phrases had received the most applause,
	and had amplified those while diminishing contrary ideas.
	McKinley also noted that a lot of trouble would have been saved
	if Dewey had sailed away after sinking the Spanish fleet in
	Manila bay.

	The ratification of the peace treaty with Spain in the US
	Senate depended on the status of the Philippines.  Opposition
	to the treaty was general among Democrats.  They would have
	defeated the treaty (which required a 2/3 vote in favor) had
	William Jennings Bryan (previous and future Democratic
	candidate for President) not argued that it would be a lot
	easier to grant the Philippines independence after acquiring
	them than to renegotiate the treaty with Spain.  A resolution
	of the Senate stating that independence would be granted at the
	earliest time received a tie vote which was broken by the Vice
	President voting against.  A milder resolution stating that it
	was not the intent of the US to maintain permanent possession
	was passed instead.  Opposition to the treaty was based on the
	idea that it would bring the US down to the level of the
	European powers, imposing their will and a way of life on
	people who didn't want it, and for whom it was not
	appropriate.  Also, that Empires were more trouble than they
	were worth, that low wage manufactures would compete with high
	wage US products, and that free trade among equals was the only
	course appropriate to the principles of the US.  Proponents
	argued that it was good for the Filipinos, as they would
	realize once they had the opportunity to see the benefits, that
	it would be good for business, and that it was time the US
	joined the great powers as befitted its prosperity.

	The Japanese government delivered a note to the US that it did
	not think the Spanish govt could maintain order in the
	Philippines and would prefer that either the US take control or
	that a tri-partite (The UK, Japan, and the US) protectorate be
	established.

	The insurrection in the Philippines appalled everyone.  Two
	successive missions were sent to assure the Filipinos that they
	would have a large degree of autonomy, and independence as soon
	as they were ready for it.  William Howard Taft, upon his
	appointment to head the second commission told McKinley that
	he could not approve American policy, and for himself did not
	want the Philipines.  "Neither do I," replied McKinley, "but
	that isn't the question.  We've got them."

	The US election campaign of 1900 was waged by the Democrats
	with the Philipines as the central issue.  Aguinaldo, the
	Filipino rebel leader told his followers that they would have
	freedom when Bryan became president.  The Republicans avoided
	that issue and focussed on Bryan's former Populist issue of
	"free Silver" (i.e., increasing the money supply, thus
	generating some inflation to make it easier for farmers to pay
	their debts.) and on "the full dinner pail" prosperity that
	could best be maintained by re-electing McKinley.  McKinley won.

	The US Army succeeded in suppressing the Philipine insurrection
	by herding large numbers of Filipinos into concentration camps
	to deny the insurgents aid from the people.  This contributed
	to the famine and other problems which killed 200,000 Filipinos
	in addition to the 20,000 insurgents, and 4,200 Americans who
	died in fighting.  (Roughly 10 times more Americans died in the
	Philippines than had died in the Spanish-American War.)  The
	irony of using the very same tactic which had so appalled
	Americans when the Spanish had used it to suppress the Cuban
	insurrection was lost on no one.  The army kept reports out of
	the US papers through strict censorship, but soldiers wrote
	letters home of the torture, and brutality used by US forces.
	These letters were used by the numerous Anti-Imperialist
	Leagues to argue against US policy.

	General Smith (a 62 year-old veteran of the US Civil War and
	the Indian Wars) was court-martialed for excessive brutality in
	ordering the burning and destruction of every village and the
	killing of every male above the age of 10 in the island of
	Samar (his limited jurisdiction).  He was treated leniently by
	Roosevelt and merely forced to retire, rather than imprisoned.
	The trial left a bitter attitude towards Imperialism in the US
	people.

	The Philppine rebel leader Aguinaldo had his revenge in 1942
	when he collaborated with the Japanese to drive out Douglas
	MacArthur, son of the General Arthur MacArthur who had
	suppressed the rebellion.

	The Philipines were granted increasing autonomy.  In 1934, it
	was organised as a semi-autonomous commonwealth and the date of
	July 4, 1946 was set as Philippine Independence day, which date
	was fulfilled.

	- Michael Goldman

-- 
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have
exhausted all other alternatives." - Abba Eban
	Disclaimer:  All views are solely my own & not the views of Acuson.
	<sun!sono!miklg>  or  [miklg@acuson.com]