14 AUGUST

Imperialist American Gen. Wesley Merritt
begins the Propaganda 6 Months before
the Philippine-American War

1898 - The imperialist United States begins its propaganda efforts as part of the looming invasion of the Philippines, a day after the infamous Mock Battle of Manila that falsely told the world that the Americans--instead of the Filipinos--defeated the colonial Spaniards in the Southeast Asian archipelago;  Gen. Wesley Merritt proclaims in English, Tagalog, and Spanish that Americans supposedly did not come "to wage war" upon the Filipinos but to "protect them in their homes, in their employments, and in their personal and religious rights"--understood to be contingent, of course, on the natives' unpatriotic acceptance of the Bald Eagle nation's colonization of the islands; the proclamation came some three months after American officials first verbally conned Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo into forming an "alliance" and into believing the US will honor Philippine Independence, came five weeks after Gen. Thomas M. Anderson asked for Filipinos' military cooperation against Spain and after Aguinaldo most stupidly ordered his soldiers "not to interfere" and allow American forces to enter the native territory, came two days after Spain and the US signed the Peace Protocol 'authorizing' the latter to occupy and hold the city, bay, and harbor of Manila pending the conclusion of a treaty set to  define the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines, and some six months before the start of the bloody and protracted Filipino-American War (1899-1914).