Even in college history the entirety of the United States relationship with the Philippines can be summed up in "You may fire when ready, Gridley" and "I shall return." Nowhere is it discussed the deceit with which the Philippines were acquired by McKinley. Nowhere is it discussed how a million Filipino civilians died during the course of Philippine pacification by the United States. Nowhere is it discussed the mismanagement of resources and collapse of Philippine industries and Banks due to such notables as Governor General Henry Stimson. Nowhere is it discussed that, despite citation by military experts like General Patreaus, the counterinsurgency in the Philippines failed with the US ceding the Provinces to Warlords and merely maintaining control of Manila and a few port towns ... exactly as the Spanish had prior to their collapse in the Islands ... leaving the US Commonwealth authorities as dubious of Filipino loyalty on the eve of WWII in 1941 as they were when they first arrived in 1899. Nowhere is it discussed how FDR was convinced to abandon the US Commonwealth of the Philippines, its garrison, its American community, and its American Nationals of Philippine descent ... in essence the US's own territory in favor of defending England.
Nowhere is the US Philippine Colonial experience commonly celebrated for its success or analyzed for its failure ... likely because it would have put doubts in the minds of the American people when it came to other Imperial endeavors ... Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
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