William Rufus Day,
Imperialist Asst. State Secretary
1898 - Five weeks after the Filipinos declared Philippine
independence during the Revolution against Spain, United States
Assistant Secretary of State William Rufus Day writes a letter
supposedly rebuking American Consul-General E. Spencer Pratt in Singapore for "undiplomatically" allowing Philippine
President Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy to believe that the U.S. Government
would recognize the independence of the Southeast Asian archipelago
after Spain is defeated and on condition that the Filipinos help the
US in the Spanish-American War; truth is, days or weeks earlier, a
number of other American officials, including Gen. Thomas Anderson,
Consul General in Hong Kong Rounsevelle Wildman, and particularly Admiral George Dewey took turns deceiving Aguinaldo
into thinking the US will honor Filipino independence (only 16 days
earlier, Gen. Anderson Day wrote Aguinaldo to ask him to cooperate
with the United States in the war against Spain, categorically stating
that Americans are sympathetic with the people of the Philippine Islands); the apparent deception would lead Aguinaldo to stupidly order the Filipino forces "not to interfere"
and freely allow the American forces to position themselves for the
eventual US invasion of the Philippines; by February of the following
year, Bald Eagle President William McKinley will secretly instigate hostilities leading to the the bloody and protracted Filipino-American War (1989-1914).
No comments:
Post a Comment