The Battle of Bud Dajo took place March 5-8, 1906. It pitted the U.S. Army. U.S. Navy, and the Philippine Constabulary against 800-1,000 dissident Muslims who had fortified the top of a rugged, 2,175 feet high dormant volcano on the island of Jolo in the southern Philippine Islands. Although beginning as a genuine military contest, it ended as a tragic and terrible, one-sided massacre, with no more than a small and pitiful handful of the Muslims left alive. Although lesser known. It ranks beside such infamous names as “Sand Creek” (1864), Wounded Knee” (1890), and “My Lai” (1968) as one of the darkest, bloodiest, and most controversial episodes in America’s long and troubled history of deadly encounters with indigenous peoples.More than just a straightforward account of an epic fight on a spectacular mountain, it is also the story of a second and equally vicious donnybrook within the nations’ press and on the floor of Congress to comprehend what had actually occurred on that remote field of battle and why. At stake were the careers of the nation’s most well known soldier, General Leonard Wood, and a future President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, William Howard Taft, as well as the reputation of one of the nation’s most popular Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt.But there is also a mystery here. The real story of what happened would remain buried for more than another century. Why? Was there a deliberate, and successful, cover up? If the real facts had come to light sooner, would it have mattered? Could it have impacted the course of American history? Is there a lesson to take away here, or at least a warning?
Publisher : Tumalo Creek Press
Publication date : December 15, 2011
Language : English
Print length : 200 pages
ISBN-10 : 097951732X
ISBN-13 : 978-0979517327
Item Weight : 12.6 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 0.46 x 9 inches
