November 10, 2005
More on TR Posted by Frederic D. Schwarz at 12:00 PM EST When Teddy Roosevelt became President, in September 1901, the dirty work in the Philippines had already been done and the resistance had largely been suppressed. (The resistance, by the way, was fighting to establish a native constitutional government, something TR resolutely refused to permit.) As detailed by Mark C. Carnes in American Heritage in September 1998, the rebellion, which had been characterized by frequent atrocities on both sides, was ended through the resourcefulness of one man, Col. Frederick Funston. Early in 1901 American troops captured a rebel courier carrying secret dispatches from Emilio Aguinaldo, the rebel leader. As Carnes writes, Funston’s "interrogation of the courier was successful. (It was later said that Funston had subjected him to the ‘water torture,’ an effective new aid to military intelligence whereby several gallons of water were forced down the throat of a suspect, whose painfully distended belly was then beaten with logs. Funston would say only that he had interrogated the courier ‘forcefully.’) For whatever reasons, the courier confirmed that Aguinaldo had written the dispatches and revealed that Aguinaldo’s secret redoubt was at Palanan, an inaccessible village in remote Luzon." When decoded, the dispatches showed that Aguinaldo expected the courier to send reinforcements. So Funston dressed some pro-American locals in rebel uniforms, disguised himself and other American officers as captured prisoners, and got the party admitted to Aguinaldo’s camp. At an opportune moment, they pulled out weapons and started firing, grabbed the rebel general, and carried him to a waiting Navy vessel. Carnes continues: "Weeks later, after being subjected to intense pressure from U.S. military officials, Aguinaldo renounced the Filipino revolution, swore allegiance to the United States, and called on his followers to do likewise. Most did, and the Philippine-American war was over." And what was the reaction of Vice-President Roosevelt to Funston’s adventure? "I take pride in this crowning exploit of a career filled with feats of cool courage, iron endurance and gallant daring."
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