Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903

Rating:
Summary: Suberb history of a forgotten war
Review: An excellent telling of a period that most Americans and Filipinos know little or nothing about. With America's new ownership of the Philippines, we were drawn into a second conflict once the Spanish were routed. The insurrectionist movement against America brought about a bloody and savage war that cost tens of thousands of lives. The third phase was the attempt to subdue the Moros, some of the toughest and most fearless warriors on the planet. The troops involved thought they would only be fighting Spanish regulars and then sent home. Rather, many spent years fighting in jungles and swamps against a clever and determined foe, and many were then shipped off to fight the Boxer's in China in 1900, only to be returned to battle the often fiendish inhabitants of places like Sibago Island, Jolo and Samar. A classic account and ranks with "Muddy Glory" and "Little Brown Brother" to name but a couple. There isn't much written about this conflict, but the information is out there. These lessons should have taught America about getting involved in smaller nations affairs.

Rating:
Summary: Template for imperialism and modern imperial war
Review: Benevolent Assimilation is McKinley's phrase for the civilizing mission of America in the Philippines. Miller makes a good case that the Filipinos neither needed civilizing or Christianizing since they had both. What America really wanted was a colonial empire to establish itself as a great power. McKinley did not know what he wanted, but people made him believe in the civilizing mission of the U.S. government.
What Miller demonstrates in this book is that the Philippines wanted independence and not American government. The revolt which followed the Spanish American War was long and devastated the islands. Thousands lost their lives, and American troops showed no mercy in putting down the revolt. The revolt lasted for over three years, and cost the U.S. much in men and treasure.
America won, but lost seventy years later in Vietnam.

Rating:
Summary: America's first Vietnam. We won this one.
Review: Benevolent Assimilation is McKinley's phrase for the civilizing mission of America in the Philippines. Miller makes a good case that the Filipinos neither needed civilizing or Christianizing since they had both. What America really wanted was a colonial empire to establish itself as a great power. McKinley did not know what he wanted, but people made him believe in the civilizing mission of the U.S. government.
What Miller demonstrates in this book is that the Philippines wanted independence and not American government. The revolt which followed the Spanish American War was long and devastated the islands. Thousands lost their lives, and American troops showed no mercy in putting down the revolt. The revolt lasted for over three years, and cost the U.S. much in men and treasure.
America won, but lost seventy years later in Vietnam.

Rating:
Summary: The lesson that should have kept us out of Vietnam.
Review: Stuart Miller's book is an excellent study in the political turmoil and subterfuges involved in the transition of America into an imperialist power. The book is not really a military history; the military aspects are secondary to Miller's coverage of how Americans justified, reacted to, and lied about our subjugation of the Philippines. It is a very sobering history of the river of lies poured out by the military, especially General Otis, and the administration of William McKinley. This is also a study in racism; how allegedly "superior" Anglo-Saxons needed to "civilize" and "Christianize" the Filipinos, many of whom were Catholic. Overall, this book is a good primer about a shocking and somewhat vile episode in American history. High School history teachers in particular should read this book and include it in their lessons about the outcome of our "splendid little war" with Spain. It is a sad truth that as a result of this conflict, America did not seem to learn anything about the nature of guerilla warfare with a people fighting to be free of foreign control. Our failure to profit from this episode helped propel us into another such quagmire in Vietnam, a nation not too far from the site of our earlier fiasco in the Philippines.

Rating:
Summary: Imperialism Up Close
Review: This book is an excellent general history of the American invasion and conquest of The Philippines in 1898-1902, a war of empire undertaken to boost the prospects for the Republican Party in the elections of 1898. Author Miller immersed himself in private letters, official hearings, and newspaper editorials from the era. The result is a compelling picture of a sleazy and violent episode in American history. The book is timelier than ever after 9/11, since imperialism has come back into vogue in the guise of anti-terrorism: anyone who still has illusions about America's "innocence" should read Miller's accounts of atrocities and racism at the turn of the last century.

I gave the book four stars instead of five only because the narrative is based almost exclusively on U.S. sources. In particular, Miller's endless rehashing of imperialist and anti-imperialist newspaper editorials gets quite old at times.

Rating:
Summary: a necessary volume
Review: this book, along with stanley karnow's "in our image" and james hamilton-paterson's "america's boy" should be a necessary primer on america's tragic flirtation with colonialism at the turn of the century. Well-paced and thoroughly engaging, "benevolent assimilation" is as comprehensive and accessible document on the american annexation of the philippines, an illegal act that in its time raised serious questions about the very nature of the Americam republic and the liberal, jeffersonian democracy late 19th century america putatively still represented. the dream of empire, and its price in blood is poignantly essayed here. the chapters where the United States pursued its brutal, racist war of conquest with the consent of american law are wrenching. quite sad that there is very little public discussion of this atrocious chapter in our history a full century later. thought-provoking. capable of inducing a kind of soul-searching and introspection few events in our history (like african slavery and the extermination and continuing disenfranchisement of native americans) are capable of provoking. essential not just for history buffs, but for anyone interested in reading history with an eye to purifying our creed.

Rating:
Summary: A good one-volume account of a forgotten "war".
Review: Though well known to professional historians, the US fight against the Filipino "insurrectionists" at the turn of the century remains a blank spot to most Americans. There are some very good reasons for this. Most people don't like to be reminded that the US was an openly racist major power more interested in trade than in freeing the natives of the Philippines. It is disturbing to read about American heros like Teddy Roosevelt denigrating the "niggers" who inhabited the island, and soft-pedalling widespread torture by the US military (most notably the rather nasty 'water cure'). It is also interesting to read how many people did not value the islands that much themselves, but felt that they were needed to be our springboard to the China trade -- which was going to make everyone rich, of course! It took the Japanese empire at its worst to make the US look like a friend to many Filipinos, and this book tells why.

Rating:
Summary: Template for imperialism and modern imperial war
Review: While many scholars and "military analysts" (Linn) have written up this war, none have done a more exhaustive job than Miller in detailing the rapacious American conquest of the Philippines, at the high and middle policy making levels. Also richly detailed is the political conflict among Americans, between hate-spewing war-mongering politicians and media voices and opponents of the war. As Miller aptly points out, the war served as the very template of later wars in Vietnam, and, frighteningly, today's "war on terrorism". Highest possible recommendation for anyone wanting a better understanding of the world, and human conflict.