In Hong Kong, Yankee agents struck a secret deal with Aguinaldo, returned him to the islands, and supplied him with weapons. They carefully avoided putting any commitments in writing. While Aguinaldo resumed fighting the Spaniards, President McKinley sent Admiral George Dewey and the Pacific Fleet into Philippine waters, followed by a convoy with ten thousand Yankee soldiers. On May 1, 1898, Dewey defeated the weak Spanish fleet in Manila Bay without the loss of a single man. Onshore, Aguinaldo’s rebel forces gained control of all the countryside except Manila, and he declared independence on June 12, 1898. Filipinos became the first Asians to throw off European colonialism. It was instantly replaced by American colonialism.
Aguinaldo was tricked by the Americans into yielding his positions around Manila to Yankee soldiers. This enabled the Yanks to stage a sham battle with the Spaniards and to accept the surrender of the city for themselves, as an American war prize. Only then did Aguinaldo realize that the ten thousand Yankee soldiers offshore were not there to help him.
In Vice President Teddy Roosevelt’s view, Manila would become an American Hong Kong. Others at home feared that Yankee blood would be mingled with that of “Malays and other unspeakable Asiatics.” Admiral Dewey also advised keeping only Manila, and giving the rest back to Spain. But President McKinley insisted on having all the islands, describing his decision to Methodist churchmen:
IgotdownonmykneesandprayedtoAlmightyGodforguidance. Andonenightlateitcametome: wecouldnotgive[the Philippines] backtoSpain— thatwouldbecowardlyanddishonorable; wecouldnotturnthemovertoFranceorGermany… thatwouldbebadbusiness; wecouldnotleavethemtothemselves— theywereunfitforself-government. Therewasnothingleftforustodobuttotakethemall… thenIwenttobedandsleptsoundly.
The successful Filipino revolution lay directly in the path of that irresistible American force called “benevolent assimilation,” composed of equal parts Springfield rifle and apple pie. The Treaty of Paris ceded the entire archipelago to the United States. Although Washington claimed it had won the islands by conquest, no conquest had taken place and $20 million was paid to Spain as part of the Paris settlement. Independence had been sold out. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army was fighting Filipinos instead of Spaniards. Many American officers were veterans of the Civil War and the Indian Wars. To them Filipinos were “Niggers” or “Goo-Goos.” By 1900, two thirds of the entire U.S. Army was tied down fighting in the Philippines.
The My Lai of this first U.S. guerrilla war in Asia occurred on Samar Island. Back home, President McKinley had just been assassinated and a company of U.S. soldiers in Samar was holding a memorial service when guerrillas disguised as women entered the church and attacked the Yanks with bolo knives, killing fifty-nine and wounding twenty-three. General Jacob Smith vowed to turn Samar into “a howling wilderness,” and proceeded to do so. (It has never recovered.) Said he, “I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn: the more you kill and burn the better you will please me.” His men went on a rampage, with orders to “kill everyone over the age of ten,” burning whole towns, torturing and slaughtering unarmed men, women, and children. Major General Adna Chaffee advised reporters not to be sentimental about the death of “a few Goo-Goos.”
It was an ugly war and American soldiers wrote home about it:
Lastnightoneofourboyswasfoundshotandhisstomachcutopen. ImmediatelyorderswerereceivedfromGeneralWheatontoburnthetownandkilleverynativeinsight, whichwasdonetoafinish. Aboutonethousandmen, womenandchildrenwerereportedkilled. Iamprobablygrowinghard-heartedforIaminmyglorywhenIcansightmygunonsomedarkskinandpullthetrigger… TellallmyfriendsthatIamdoingeverythingIcanforOldGloryandforAmericaIlovesowell.
Asweapproachedthetownthewordpassedalongthelinethattherewouldbenoprisonerstaken. Itmeantweweretoshooteverylivingthinginsight— man, womanorchild… Dumdumbulletswereusedinthemassacre, butwewerenottoldthenameofthebullets. Wedidn’thavetobetold. Weknewwhattheywere.
On top of war, by 1902 the Philippines was crippled by famine.