Free Republic

The American soldiers were eating breakfast in Balangiga’s town square when Filipino villagers, including men disguised in dresses, attacked them with bolo knives. Forty-eight Americans died. The year was 1901 and for the United States Army, the massacre in the central Philippines was the worst since Custer and his troops were slaughtered at the Battle of Little Bighorn, 25 years earlier. In retaliation, the United States commander ordered his forces to kill every male older than 10 and turn the central Philippines island of Samar into a “howling wilderness.” American troops killed civilians, burned houses and destroyed food supplies. They...

When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sits down for his first face-to-face bilateral meeting with President Trump on Monday in Manila, he will come to the table with an unusual request. Duterte wants the United States to return war trophies seized more than 100 years ago: three historic church bells that were taken from the Philippine village of Balangiga after a bloody clash during the Philippine-American War. In 1899, fighting broke out between U.S. troops and Filipino nationalists after Spain ceded control of the Philippines to the U.S. following Spain's defeat in the Spanish-American War. The nationalists seized control of the...