This statement, calmly uttered by
Commodore Dewey after entering Manila harbor in late April 1898 (l.
2074), became a pre-Internet meme, so much so that I can clearly hear
in my mind Bugs Bunny saying it to Elmer Fudd, a strong memory from
the many happy hours wasted watching cartoons when young. That's a
meme with legs.
The US annexation of the Philippines
was largely the unintended consequence and ill-planned afterthought
of America's quarrel with Spain over Cuba. Comparisons with our more recent and
more moronic imperial adventures in the Middle East are almost too
obvious to comment on – but not quite.
I was happy to see President McKinley
come in for a sound drubbing for his behavior during the run-up to
the Spanish-American. At one point a few years ago during the
wretched reign of George W. Bush, his herd of tame pundits – eager
to find a narrative to explain GW Bush's presidency more flattering
than the one that was taking shape at the time – attempted briefly
to resurrect McKinley as an unsung and unappreciated American hero,
an interpretation even more unlikely and difficult-to-believe than
the one about Saddam Hussein's weapon of mass destruction. Unlike GW
Bush, McKinley had actually seen combat during the US Civil War,
including conspicuous acts of bravely at Antietam and elsewhere (l.
2269). From this experience, he very reasonably took away a horror of
war. However, he lacked the strength of character to resist the
pressure of the pro-war party of media barons, Washington
bureaucrats, and self-interested exiles, usually (cf. more recently)
people who had never been to war themselves.
Concerning the Philippines, McKinley later confessed to a friend
that he “could not have told where those darned islands were within
two thousand miles” (l. 2810).
In the Dick Cheney role, we have future
President Theodore Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
Roosevelt exercised power disproportionate to his position by virtue
of good connections, a weak boss, and sheer bald-faced cheek. One
afternoon, ten days after the Maine
exploded, Roosevelt's boss left work early to visit and
osteopath. While his boss was gone, Roosevelt sent out directive to
US Navy commanders around the world to stock fuel and ammunition,
asked Congress to authorize him to recruit more men, and cabled Dewey
to assemble his ships in Hong Kong harbor. He told Dewey: “In the
event of declaration of war with Spain, your duty will be to see that
the Spanish Squadron does not leave the Asiatic Coast, and then
offensive operations in the Philippine Islands.” This was America's
“first step” toward the Philippines, Dewey later recalled (l.
2702).
When he returned to work the next day,
Long was annoyed by Roosevelt's orders, but he took no steps to
countermand them.
Officially, the Spanish fleet in the
Pacific was monitored by the US naval attaché
in Madrid, who picked up information from newspaper reports and
diplomatic gossip (l. 2680). Fortunately for US imperial ambitions,
the US Consul in Manila (like most diplomatic positions at the time,
obtained through political patronage (l. 2306)), an elderly Ohio
professor named Oscar Williams, had a hitherto undiscovered talent
for espionage and peppered Dewey with information vital to an
invasion including, most importantly, that Manila harbor was unmined
and undefendable (l. 2682).
The
battle of Manila Bay was a rout (l. 2778). The Spanish made very
basic strategic mistakes at the beginning and the battle went
downhill from there. Local insurgents spontaneously joined in
harassing the Spaniards on land. The Spaniards thought this was
deliberately planned and panicked. Two hundred Spaniards died. No
American boats were damaged, and the only US casualty was one man who
died from heat prostration (l. 2076).
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