User:Scheidwj

US Involvement in the Philippines

The US purchased the Philippines on December 10, 1898 from the Spanish at the end of the Spanish-American War. The Philippines was the first Pacific Colony that the US acquired. The United States had no experience with ruling an overseas colony, so it took the government time to develop a strategy for controlling the Philippines that it found suitable and fair. “U.S. administration of the Philippines was always declared to be temporary and aimed to develop institutions that would permit and encourage the eventual establishment of a free and democratic government.” It is evident that the US government was able to instill democratic values upon the growing Philippine’s system of government. Their government is set up almost identically to the United States’, with a bicameral legislature and an elected presidency among other things. There is still a big influence between the two countries, being the Philippine state is the US’s closest non-NATO ally. From World War Two to the Cold War, the US has been more than willing to support the Philippines and prevent them from falling into turmoil like so many other countries The US is heavily involved in the past, present, and future of the Philippines.

US Purchase of the Philippines

The purchase of the Philippines was written into the terms of the Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898, after General George Dewey and his troops destroyed the Spanish Armada in Manila Bay. The defeat forced the Spanish to accept their losses and give up their claims to the Philippines. It was the news of the start of the Philippine-American War, strategically released by President McKinley the day before the Senate vote, that got the US Senate to adopt the treaty that paid for the Philippines The US gave Spain a 20 million dollar compensation for the transfer of ownership.

Philippine-American War

The Philippine-American War, officially known as the Philippine Insurrection in the US until reclassified in 1999 by the Library of Congress, was a conflict between nationalist forces led by Emilio Aguinaldo and US Troops that were occupying the country. Filipinos wanted actual freedom instead of just trading out empirical powers. “There were two phases to the Philippine-American War. The first phase, from February to November of 1899, was dominated by Aguinaldo’s ill-fated attempts to fight a conventional war against the better-trained and equipped American troops. The second phase was marked by the Filipinos’ shift to guerrilla-style warfare. It began in November of 1899, lasted through the capture of Aguinaldo in 1901 and into the spring of 1902, by which time most organized Filipino resistance had dissipated.” The Filipino forces suffered greatly from trying to fight a standard war against the better prepared US forces in the first phase, they would have had a better chance of winning had they used guerilla warfare from the start. “The war was brutal on both sides. U.S. forces at times burned villages, implemented civilian reconcentration policies, and employed torture on suspected guerrillas, while Filipino fighters also tortured captured soldiers and terrorized civilians who cooperated with American forces. Many civilians died during the conflict as a result of the fighting, cholera and malaria epidemics, and food shortages caused by several agricultural catastrophes.” Once Aguinaldo was captured, his rebel forces fell apart and were unable to continue their organized war agenda and the conflict seized to exist. Despite the brutality of the war, headway was made in the government of the new colony. William Howard Taft led a pacification movement to try and bring the Filipino people together and end the war. As the program started to work, the government gained the peoples support and was able to build power and influence social and economic reforms.

Early democratic government

The United States took control of the Philippines with very little knowledge of how to run an interoceanic empire. This contributed to the start of the Philippine-American War. The first piece of legislation that attempted to establish a government was the Organic Act in 1902. The Organic Act created a system of government that was headed by an American executive, “a bicameral legislature with an elected lower house and an appointed supreme court.” The congressional bill also established a Bill of Rights for the Filipinos. This first organized government “set the stage for establishing a Filipino government modeled after American democracy.” When the war was over Catholic Church-owned land was auctioned to the rich. The inability of the poor to obtain land “enhanced existing economic disparities and furthered the class divide.” Tenant farmers were told to vote for their landlord or leave the property, leading to the election of an elitist congress. The coming of reformist governor F.B. Harrison saw a major change in the number of native people involved in the Filipino government. In 1916 the Jones Act was implemented to give even more control to Filipinos in the national legislature, improve the Bill of Rights, and “expressly promising independence for the Philippines ‘as soon as a stable government [could] be established therein.’” The Bill did not however, grant American citizenship to the people, a major concern of political leaders, because it included the promise of independence. Independence loomed even closer with the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934. This was the last congressional act that had the purpose of reforming the Filipino government. The act stated that the Philippines would be granted independence within 10 years if they could draft a new constitution that the people can agree on, seat a fully Filipino government, and get the approval of the US that the new government was stable enough for independence. The new government consisted of a three branch system similar to the United States, and included public education, labor rights and women’s suffrage in the constitution. It was this government setup that would continue until the start of WWII and lead the nation to independence. After fighting with the Japanese seized, the Philippines had a major recovery from the devastation of the war. As the aftermath was being dealt with, the Philippines were granted their independence two years later than promised on July 4, 1946, becoming the Republic of the Philippines. The government had a rocky start on their own though. “Corruption in government strangled the development of Philippine democracy…” This became one of the US’s main concerns during the cold war and the fight against communism.

WWII

Almost immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked the city of Manila. US General Douglas MacArthur was in command of all the forces in the Philippines, both American and Filipino, when the attacks started. “The aircraft of his command were destroyed; the naval forces were ordered to leave; and because of the circumstances in the Pacific region, reinforcement and resupply of his ground forces were impossible. Under the pressure of superior numbers, the defending forces withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula and to the island of Corregidor at the entrance to Manila Bay.” Unable to defend the cities from the Japanese, MacArthur was forced to relocate to Australia. He made it clear to the men he left behind that he would be back with a vengeance. The Japanese took Manila on January 2, 1942.

The remaining forces were left to fight the approaching Japanese soldiers without their commander. They lost the Bataan Peninsula in April 1942. “In May 1942, Corregidor, the last American/Filipino stronghold, fell. U.S. forces in the Philippines surrendered to the Japanese, placing the islands under Japanese control.” This surrender lead to the Bataan Death March. Some 80,000 prisoners were forced by the Japanese to walk almost 50 miles to the prison camps. “It is estimated that as many as 10,000 men, weakened by disease and malnutrition and treated harshly by their captors, died before reaching their destination.” The Bataan Death March was a big deal to Americans and was a major point of rallying for the fight against the Japanese. While MacArthur was in Australia, he began planning the naval strike that would take back the Philippines when the chance came. On October 20, 1944, MacArthur’s offensive take back of the Philippines began with a landing party on Leyte. The joined force fought their way toward Manila. Once in Manila, American and Filipino forces fought until the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945. American influence was the deciding factor in the freeing of the Philippines from Japanese control during World War 2.

Cold War Era

The Republic of the Philippines came out of the war with a small economy and no way to repair their infrastructure. Because of this, the US remained to aid in reconstruction. The rise of the communist Huk Rebellion further involved the US because of their policy on containment. In 1947, the two countries entered into a military assistance pact that gave the US 99 years (later reduced to 25 years in 1959) of access to military bases in the Philippines in exchange for helping the Philippines with its own conflicts. After the Huks were dismantled, the scope of US involvement declined. As the Cold War came to a close the Philippines made allies with other countries and had seemed to have severed its ties with the US military completely, after the barring of access to Clark Air Force Base and Subic Naval Base. The two countries remained major economic allies throughout the Cold War and still are major trading partners. It wasn’t until the reappearance of an international threat that the Philippines and the United States would come back together on similar issues.

Modern relations

The United States and the Philippines reentered military cooperation after the events of September 11, 2001. After President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo showed public support for President Bush’s war on terror, the US started to aid the Philippines in fighting terrorism. The US provided assistance in removing insurgent groups such as Abu Sayyaf Group, the New People’s Army and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from the Philippines. “Since late 2001, Washington has extended military and technical assistance to Manila with the aim of strengthening the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) counter-terrorism/counter-insurgency capabilities” just for showing support of the war on terror. In 2003, the Philippines sent non-combat troops with the US in the invasion of Iraq for humanitarian uses. A truck driver was captured and held for ransom until the Philippines withdrew their troops. Their compliance with the kidnappers angered American leaders because they were giving in to terrorism, but the alliance continued to build with further training exercises and cooperation. At about the same time, China began to aggress into the South China Sea and land very close to the Philippines. This had both the US and Philippines attention. So as to not get caught off-guard, the US has adopted a hedging strategy just in case China becomes even more aggressive. “The two allies view that China has the potential to become an acute security challenge in East Asia due to its expansive claims.” A Visiting Forces Agreement was signed in 1998 that allowed US forces to come and go in the Philippines. The precautions for China then became an important role in the War on Terror. US forces and AFP joined together to fight terrorist groups based in the Philippines and more recently have continued exercises to prepare for any sort of Chinese aggression that may occur in the near future. The US continues to give millions of dollars in aid to the Philippines every year. This aid goes primarily to humanitarian missions such as child health care, disaster relief, and developing cleaner, more efficient infrastructure. The US is also the second largest trading partner of the Philippines having 13.5 billion dollars in trade in 2011.