Monday, March 14, 2011

14 MARCH

1899 - Imperialist United States Gen. Elwell Otis reports to the Adjutant-General in Washington that Gen.Loyd Wheaton has attacked a large force of “the enemy,” referring to the freedom-fighting Filipinos one month into the Philippine-American War (1899-1914); the report that mentions the heavy losses were inflicted on the side Filipinos comes a day after the Battle of Guadalupe Church wherein invading Bald Eagle forces including those from the 51st Iowa Infantry, 2nd Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and Washington volunteers routed the poorly armed Filipinos; with other dispatches to Washington stating that “fierce opposition” was offered by the natives, Major Grant is ordered to take one of the gunboats and destroy all the Filipino vessels in Laguna de Bay; the invading American's strategy mapped out by Otis, who thinks resistance is concentrated in the southern Luzon provinces, consists of severing the supply line of Filipinos north of Manila and then aiming to capture Malolos, the proclaimed capital of the fledgling Philippine Republic.

1947 - The controversial RP-US Military Bases Agreement (MBA) that grants American access to 22 military, naval, and air bases in the Philippines is signed by Philippine President Manuel A. Roxas and United States Ambassador Paul V. McNutt at Malacanang some eight months after the imperialist Bald Eagle nation granted "independence" to its Southeast Asian colony; supposedly forged for the mutual defense of the two countries, the agreement would be decried by nationalists as both a symbol and actual tool of American neo-colonial hold on Filipinos; another criticism of the MBA is how it was approved only as an international executive agreement on the American side, not having been ratified by the U.S. legislature. 



Photo credit: http://books.google.com/books?id=8V3vZxOmHssC&pg=PA348&dq=gen.+otis+philippine+american+war&hl=en&ei=QjV-TYucM4fZrQeasLmzBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=gen.%20otis%20philippine%20american%20war&f=false

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