On San Juan Hill, US Glory Meant Cuban Humiliation

[magbana]

On San Juan Hill, US glory meant Cuban humiliation
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press
2008-10-26 08:06 AM

Forget the embargo. If you really want to know where U.S.-Cuba relations went wrong, head to San Juan Hill, site of the battle that decided the Spanish-American War.

On a series of ridges overlooking Cuba's second-largest city, American soldiers and volunteers _ including future president Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders _ fought alongside Cuban insurgents to beat the Spanish on July 1, 1898. Yet U.S. commanders then stopped armed Cubans from entering Santiago, fearing looting, and negotiated peace with Spain. The U.S. finally granted Cuba independence only after reserving the right to intervene militarily on the island at will.

"It's a sad moment in our history," said Marta Hernandez, of Santiago's City Historian's office.

It's a historical disconnect that still rings true 110 years later _ and helps explain why both countries couldn't even agree on emergency aid after the recent hurricanes Gustav and Ike wreaked havoc across the island.

Americans believe San Juan Hill ushered in the American century. The battle solidified Roosevelt as a can-do American president, an image repeatedly invoked by Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.

But Cuba's communist government claims it was yet another example of U.S. aggression in Latin America. The country balked last month at US$6.3 million in unconditional hurricane relief, arguing instead that the U.S. should lift its 46-year-old trade and travel embargo.

It wasn't always this way. One of the largest San Juan Hill monuments, erected in 1927, trumpets the battle as a "brilliant exploit in which the blood of the brave and true Cuban Insurgent and that of the generous and noble American Soldier sealed a covenant of liberty and fraternity between two nations."

On Feb. 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor while protecting American interests there, killing 267 American sailors and drawing the United States into a four-month war with Spain. About 15,000 soldiers and volunteers from Maj. Gen. William Shafter's Fifth U.S. Army Corps fought several battles for the high ground above Santiago, including San Juan Hill, closing off eastern access to the city. At least 205 Americans were killed and 376 wounded.

The most-famous American participant, Lt. Col. Roosevelt, resigned as assistant secretary of the Navy to join the volunteer Rough Riders. He led a much-celebrated charge up San Juan Hill that launched his political career.

But that covenant of liberty and fraternity quickly fell on hard times, as U.S. interventions helped saddle Cuba with a string of weak and corrupt governments. By the 1920s, U.S. companies controlled two-thirds of Cuban farmland, and America's prohibition era solidified the island's image as a hard-drinking, heavy-gambling den of sin just beyond Miami.

Then came Fidel Castro. After his bearded rebels toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista on New Year's Day 1959, Castro invoked the independence war and proclaimed that this time no foreign army would keep him out of any Cuban city. His brother Raul _ who became Cuba's president in February _ spent the next few weeks leading firing squads on San Juan Hill, executing Cubans who opposed the new government.

"When Fidel came down from the mountains he didn't go to Havana, he went to Santiago first," said Alejandro Ferras, an 87-year-old who fought with the Castro brothers. "That was an answer to history. That was an answer to 1898."

Since then, the Castros have peppered their speeches with reminders of how the "Yankees kept Cubans out of Santiago." By 1962, Washington had imposed its trade and travel restrictions.

Many Cubans believe their country would eventually have won freedom from Spain without Washington's intervention.

"Americans don't have a clue what the Cubans are talking about and it's not because of malice," said Louis Perez, a University of North Carolina history professor and author of books on Cuba. "They just have a version of history that they learned since elementary school about Teddy Roosevelt and San Juan Hill and how the Americans liberated Cuba."

In Cuba, Roosevelt has been all-but forgotten. There's virtually no mention of him among the San Juan Hill monuments.

"Roosevelt. I know he was in Cuba, but nothing else," said Mireya Cuadra, a caretaker at the park surrounding the hill. "Wasn't he president?"

Instead, Cubans remember Gen. Calixto Garcia and his Cuban troops, dozens of whom were killed supporting Americans forces.

A stroll on tidy stone paths through battleground monuments offers stunning views of the Sierra Maestra but also reveals how differently the two sides remember one battle: Americans wounded and killed are listed at the top of the hill, while the names of Cuban victims settle for the bottom, where plaques detail how belittled Garcia felt by U.S. arrogance.

Some U.S. academics say the communist government has rewritten Cuban history books that once taught that U.S. forces helped expedite the independence struggle. But Perez countered that the event continues to have an important impact on Cuban society, and that the Castros were products of _ not the sources for _ Cuban anger about San Juan Hill.

Today, a sculpture commissioned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts still stands over the battlefield, honoring volunteers from its 2nd and 9th Infantry regiments. Lists of Americans killed and wounded are everywhere.

The high ground has just a single statue honoring the unidentified Cuban or "Mambi" soldier. But at the hill's base, bronze and stone engravings contain excerpts of a July 17, 1898, letter Garcia wrote to Shafter, resigning after learning armed Cuban forces would be barred from Santiago.

"We are not a wild people who ignore the principles of civilized warfare," Garcia wrote. "Like the heroes of Saratoga and Yorktown, we respect our cause too deeply to disgrace it with barbarity and cowardice."

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=w102615A

[magbana]

1. UNSPINNING THE SPIN: On the San Juan Hill Story

From Karen Wald's Cuba Inside-Out List

TOPIC: UNSPINNING THE SPIN On San Juan Hill, US glory meant Cuban humiliation
http://groups.google.com/group/Cuba-Inside-Out/browse_thread/thread/04ce9a00b64f60cf?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sun, Oct 26 2008 12:11 pm
From: "Karen Lee Wald"


It's always harder to see spin when SOME, at times even MOST, of what you read in a book or article is true. I once described Jon Lee Anderson's pseudo-biography of Che in this way: it's like walking through a field of beautiful wildflowers, not knowing where the mines are planted. The camouflage is a wealth of accurate information and even analysis; but hidden among all that foliage are the weeds and the seeds of doubt they sow.
See below for an example, keeping in mind Jane Franklin's introductory note:

----- Original Message -----
From: Jane Franklin
To: [e-mail]
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2008 9:32 AM
Subject: AP: On San Juan Hill, US glory meant Cuban humiliation


This article, datelined from Santiago, Cuba, appeared in the press this
morning all over the globe, including in the Newark Star-Ledger (which I
read). Note that when Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of
Paris in December 1898, Cuba was not a party to the signing and the U.S.
flag, not the Cuban flag, ran up over Havana. Washington installed a
military government to control Cuba. Cuba was transformed from a colony of
Spain into a neocolony of the United States.
Jane Franklin
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jbfranklins

[Vogon_Glory]

2. And Will Weissert Was On San Juan Hill Long After The Shooting Stopped

Regardless of what DU's own coterie of leftist apologists, revolutionary groupies, and Marxist polemicists want to make of San Juan Hill, it was (At least in part) a triumph of American arms against the Spanish colonialists. Those American soldiers' bravery and heroism ought to be remembered, regardless of the intentions of those McKinley-era politicos who touched off that "splendid little war" and tried to turn Cuba into a full-fledged satrapy of the USA. I say keep some sort of memorial on San Juan Hill. All of those soldiers who died in hope of freeing Cuba deserve some sort of physical monument for their struggle.

Weissert's article clearly dates long, long after the shooting stopped. It may or may not have occurred to Will Weissert's or Maclean's editorial staff that even as General Miles' troops were moving up over El Caney back in 1898, the Dominion government was busy helping its British masters squash the Boer free states in southern Africa.

:patriot:

[Bacchus39]

3. independence is no humiliation as opposed to being a colony

see Puerto Rico today if you need some proof. no link necessary.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Who could ever forget the fabulous (in his mind) Breckenridge Memorandum,

penned by the Undersecretary of War, John C. Breckenridge, on Christmas Eve, 1897?

~snip~
The island of Cuba, a larger territory, has a greater population density than Puerto Rico, although it is unevenly distributed. This population is made up of whites, blacks, Asians and people who are a mixture of these races. The inhabitants are generally indolent and apathetic. As for their learning, they range from the most refined to the most vulgar and abject. Its people are indifferent to religion, and the majority are therefore immoral and simultaneously they have strong passions and are very sensual. Since they only possess a vague notion of what is right and wrong, the people tend to seek pleasure not through work, but through violence. As a logical consequence of this lack of morality, there is a great disregard for life.

It is obvious that the immediate annexation of these disturbing elements into our own federation in such large numbers would be sheer madness, so before we do that we must clean up the country, even if this means using the methods Divine Providence used on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We must destroy everything within our cannons’ range of fire. We must impose a harsh blockade so that hunger and its constant companion, disease, undermine the peaceful population and decimate the Cuban army. The allied army must be constantly engaged in reconnaissance and vanguard actions so that the Cuban army is irreparably caught between two fronts and is forced to undertake dangerous and desperate measures.

http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/bmemo.htm

Hugs and kisses,
Signed,
one pathetic piece of crap,
John C. Breckenridge



More on that history of Cuba:

~snip~
On 10 December, the Treaty of Paris was signed. The US treated Cuba as a conquered country and got Spain to hand over of the island to their military occupation. Cuban representatives were excluded from the proceedings.
The Cuban people bitterly opposed annexation. General Máximo Gómez, one of the founders of Cuban independence, wrote in his campaign diary: 'The Americans' military occupation is too high a price to pay for their spontaneous intervention in the war we waged against Spain for freedom and independence. The American government's attitude toward the heroic Cuban people at this history making time is, in my opinion, one of big business. This situation is dangerous for the country, mortifying the public spirit and hindering organisation in all the branches that, from the outset, should provide solid foundations for the future republic, when everything was entirely the work of all the inhabitants of the island, without distinction of nationality...Cuba cannot have true moral peace...under the transitional government. This transitional government was imposed by force by a foreign power and, therefore, is illegitimate and incompatible with the principles that the entire country has been upholding for so long and inthe defence of which its sons have given their lives and all of its wealth has been consumed. The situation that has been created for this people – one of material poverty and of grief because their sovereignty has been curbed – is ever more distressing. It is possible that, by the time this strange situation ends, the Americans will have snuffed out even the last sparks of goodwill.'
The Nicaraguan poet, Ruben Dario, wondered at the time what José Martí 'would say today in seeing that under the cover of aid to the grief-stricken pearl of the West Indies, the "monster" gobbles it up, oyster and all.'
In preventing Cuban independence, the US had the support of those Cubans who had strong commercial ties to their powerful neighbour, such as the sugar magnates. This meant that the US could change its straightforward annexationist plan to one of being seen to accept the desire for independence.
On 25 July 1900, the Constitutional Convention of Cuban representatives started its deliberations. It was to implement the US Joint Resolution by drafting a new Constitution and agree stipulations concerning US-Cuban relations.
On 2 March 1901, the US congress attached an amendment to the Cuban Constitution authorising the US to leave government of the island in the hands of the Cuban people – but only after a government had been established there under a constitution in which the future relations with the US were to be ridgedly defined. This became known as the Platt Amendment, after Senator Orville Platt, who presented it. Under this amendment, the US limited the country's sovereignty and turned it into a neocolony. It legalised US military intervention. It assumed the right to seize part of Cuba's territory by leaving ownership of the Isle of Pines (the second largest largest island in the Cuban archipelago) to be adjusted by future treaty. It limited Cuba's rights to enter into treaties with other countries. Finally, it forced the country to sell or lease a part of its territory for the establishment of naval stations.
Coercion and fraud were used to establish US military bases in Cuba – factors that, under international law, make any agreement null and void. The Cuban Convention was warned not to modify the Amendment and told the US troops would not leave Cuba until its terms had been adopted. So there could be no possible misunderstanding, he finished his warning by saying that, if the Amendment were not accepted, there would be no Republic of Cuba. Cuban patriot Juan Gualberto Gomez said: 'The Amendment was like giving it the key to our house so it could come and go at all hours.'
In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became US President. He had been Assistant Secretary for the Navy under President McKinley and one of the strongest advocates of military intervention in Cuba. The war had made his political career. He made an addition to the Monroe doctrine, known as the Roosevelt Corollary: 'Chronic wrongdoing or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilised society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilised nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force it, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.'
Invasions, threats and treaties made at gunpoint characterised Roosevelt's term as president. On 24 March 1902, he met with Tomás Estrada Palma, President of Cuba. He told him which places had been chosen for the establishment of naval or coaling stations, as stipulated in Clause VII of the Platt Amendment: Cienfuegos and Guantánamo on the southern coast, and Nipe and Honda Bays on the northern coast. The US occupation of the island as a whole officially ended.
In July 1903, the Permanent Treaty was signed, which involved the unlimited lease to the US of the territory of Honda and Guantánamo Bays. The neocolonial Cuban government requested that the event be low-key because the Cuban people were protesting against the lease, and it sent only one representative. At noon on that day, the Cuban flag was lowered, and the US flag raised to sound of a 21-gun salute. Then 600 US Marines landed.
The US-backed independence movement of Panama had just won its separation from Colombia. The US planned to construct a canal through to the Pacific Ocean there as a boost to its trade and military activies. Roosevelt described Guantánamo as the 'absolute necessary strategic base' for controlling the Caribbean and the route to the Panama Canal'.
Cuba emerged as the model for US imperialism. American economic and political domination had been secured without the seizure of a colony. The US could continue to boast its anti-colonial tradition and beliefs despite having made Cuba a dependency. It was at this time that the term 'sphere of influence' became an international euphemism for neo-colonialism.
However, the US regularly intervened, occupying Cuba again in 1906 and 1909. In 1912, US troops occupied the east of the island in order to crush an armed uprising against the government even though it had not asked for help. The US then took the opportunity to impose an extension of its territory at Guantánamo in exchange for giving up Honda Bay. That same year, US President William Howard Taft said: 'The day is not far distant when three Stars and Stripes at three equidistant points will mark our territory; one at the North Pole, another at the Panama Canal, and the third at the South Pole. The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally.'
Taft's policies were followed with even more vigour by his successor, Woodrow Wilson. The US was seriously challenging British imperialism within the hemisphere. In 1914, the US held 17% of all investments in Latin America; by 1929 it held 40%, with most of in Mexico and Cuba.
The US Marines occupied Cuba again for the whole of the period from 1917 to 1923 when the Russian Revolution inspired a revolutionary upturn. They put down strikes and protected US property. A US governor virtually managed the finances of the Cuban government and representatives of US sugar interests were leading political figures. They enforced policies which suited US economic interests at the expense of Cuban national development.
Between 1925 and 1933, US interests in Cuba were looked after by the dictator Gerado Machado, who was nicknamed 'the Butcher'. By the 1930s, with the worldwide depression, increasing social unrest and fear of revolution convinced the US that he was more of a liability than an asset.
In March 1933, US President Roosevelt proposed what he called the 'Good Neighbour Policy', and said he was opposed to armed intervention in Latin America. A special ambassador, Sumner Welles, was sent to Cuba charged with preventing a left-wing government replacing Machado. However, the US never abandoned the threat of the use of force and, in September 1933, over 20 US warships visited the Bay of Havana and other points along the Cuban coast. The US eventually put its trust in Fulgencio Batista.. .After his successful installation as dictator, the Treaty of Reciprocity was signed in Washington. It repealed the Platt Amendment and the Permanent Treaty, but maintained the Guantánamo naval base. A new sugar agreement was made which, which reinforced Cuban dependence on the US. Batista formed an alliance with the reactionary pro-US elite in Cuba and was rewarded with a 25 year period in power, which was notorious for its corruption and repression.
General Smedley D. Butler, participant in many of theUS interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean during the early 20th century wrote in his memoirs in 1935: 'I spent 33 years and four months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force - the Marine Corps. I served in all commisioned ranks from second lieutenant to major-general. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism... thus I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank to collect revenues in... I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras `right' for American fruit companies in 1903.'
Throughout 1898 to 1959, US servicemen constantly harassed the Cuban population and went on rampages through towns. The neocolonial Cuban government usually displayed a thoroughly servile tolerance of whatever abuses were committed. Cuban laws were not applicable to US forces personnel even when they were on supposedly Cuban territory!
During the revolutionary war 1952-59, the Batista regime at first had the complicity, then recognition, and finally support of the US. The Guantánamo base served as a fuel and ammunition supplier to the dictator's planes that indiscriminately bombed rural areas and defencless towns. Photographs taken of planes on the base landing strips were published worldwide.

More:
http://www.rcgfrfi.easynet.co.uk/ratb/cuba/history3.htm