Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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of them old Indian fighters, carried out a campaign of wholesale
slaughter and brutal atrocities which finally led to condemnations at
home, though without shaking the conviction of American benevolence.
“The war of conquest and its atrocities and courts-martial” have not
fared well “in America’s collective memory,” Miller writes: “The subject
is rarely touched upon in history texts, and when it is, this sordid
episode is reduced to a bare mention of an ‘insurrection against
American rule’.” Miller himself expresses contempt for critics who do not
understand that “the American interventions both in Vietnam and in the
Philippines were motivated in part by good intentions to elevate or to aid
the victims”; Soviet scholars say the same about Afghanistan, with
comparable justice. 6
The scale of US achievements in pursuing its “good intentions” can
only be guessed. General James Bell, who commanded operations in
southern Luzon, estimated in May 1901 that one-sixth of the natives of
Luzon had been killed or died from dengue fever, considered the result
of war-induced famine; thus, over 600,000 dead in this island alone. A
US government report indicated that 3/4 of the population of 300,000
had been killed by the army or famine and disease in one province of
Luzon, where Bell had been fighting. A Republican Congressman who
visited the Philippines wrote that “You never hear of any disturbances in
Northern Luzon . . . because there isn’t anybody there to rebel . . . our
soldiers took no prisoners; they kept no records; they simply swept the
country and wherever or however they could get hold of a Filipino they
killed him. The women and children were spared and may now be
noticed in disproportionate numbers in that part of the island.” On the
island of Samar, in contrast, everyone over 10 was ordered killed by
Waller’s commander General Smith, who was “admonished” in a courtmartial
proceeding and retired a year and a half early by President
Roosevelt, in punishment. 7 As noted, Waller was acquitted for executing