This article provides a brief account of the American conquest of the Philippines and the attendant atrocities that accompanied the invasion. In the case of the United States, founded in part on a revolutionary republican imaginary but also a racialised and expansionist missionary vision of “Manifest Destiny”, this was not a simple or uncontested matter back in 1899. Successful war propaganda has to be reconciled with the self-respecting, symbolic self-interpretations of a national community. What I want to argue about this case, is that successful propaganda does not occur in the context of an otherwise rational and empirically verifiable public discourse. Propaganda is understood here as the deliberate falsification, distortion or tendentious portrayal of events to justify a political cause to the wider public. It is an enduring legacy of US government and military propaganda, widely disseminated by a largely supportive corporate press, which contributed in no small way to the American victory both at home and abroad. The historical amnesia surrounding this conflict is no accident. The Philippine-American War (c.1899 – 1913), which led to the colonial subjugation of the Philippines by the United States for over forty years and the suppression of the first independent republic in South-East Asia, is one of America’s forgotten wars.
Written by expert contributors, with distinguished scholars of American military history and of the era in which the Spanish-American War took place.Over 600 alphabetically organized entries in two volumes, covering leading individuals, battles, weapons systems, and events in the United States, Spain, and other nations, as well as economic, cultural, and social topics.
(“China,” 1:114-116 “Japan,” 1:307-309 “Legacy of the War,” 1:332-336 “Origins of the War,” 2:453-456 “Sims, William Sowden,” 2:594-595.) Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2009 Distinguished Book Award, 2010 - Society for Military History Outstanding Reference Source, 2010 - Reference and User Services Association A comprehensive overview of the wars that saw the United States emerge as a world power one that had immense implications for America, especially in Latin America and Asia. Tucker et al., eds., The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History, 3 vols.
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