Vietnam War Report; American Policy in Asia: From the Revolution to the Present Asian Conflict

We all jungle everything which John Doe that bad rice patty. I used to go down to their rice paddies. We used to. One night. We laid down big sleet. And of course each man at a shelter had half of the shelter halfs a way to make a shelter in the middle of the night about 12 o'clock or 1 o'clock about more to get it poured on me and I worse he rated me here like a at a come down in torrents. There we'd have to wait. Take it all off away till the side comes up the drive and put a bottom to go like it. That voice is not from Vietnam. It is from a forgotten war of the American past the Philippine insurrection. It is the voice of a veteran of that war. This is Vietnam War report. My name is Jonathan Margolis. Tonight's program

deals with American policy in Asia from the Revolution to the present Asian conflict. Events do not happen in a vacuum. They carry their historical baggage along with them. The some of those past events that determine the present attitudes the Vietnam War has a lot of historical baggage. American policy toward the far east for almost two centuries of contact this program intends to examine some of that historical baggage. Our first relations with the east came through the Yankee traders always hungry for new markets who pursued the winds of fortune even to the Straits of Malacca and the China Sea. The first voyage to China came even before the Constitution was written. New England historian Edward Rowe snow tells the story of the Empress of China. Chinese trade really begins with sand they will show off who was the pioneer of the China trade. He served in the revolution.

General Knox. And. As happened in many others he lost all his money by paying for the supplies which had to be given to the troops. So after the war ended he was so poor he had to go to a few capitalists and suggest that he could be sent to China and open up the wall as regards against Jack pan and other areas with pushing China to the forefront and Captain Randall It was a good friend of his was suggested by Shaw that he go along with the show on the trip. So although it was not from Boston that. They sailed they did leave or the Empress of China in seventeen eighty four from New York and. They did reach Whampoa which as you know is about 12 miles from

Canton and that was the first arrival of an American craft in the area and the other craft England and France and Germany in the harbor there saluted the first arrival of the Americans. For about 70 years the only contact that Americans had with Asia was that of the merchant captains and their agents. There is no time here to deal extensively with those bold captains and the amazing mercantile feats which they performed. But the beautiful square rigged ships that they built for the Far East trade gave America the lead in world trade. They were the China Clippers. In the 1840s the United States Navy began sending individual ships to

the Orient to show the flag and protect American merchants from the dangers of those unknown coasts. Actually the first naval expedition to the Pacific had occurred during the War of 1812 when Commodore David Porter took the frigate Essex past Cape Horn and ravaged the English whaling fleet that had a virtual monopoly on that trade. The work of later years however was the dull routine of patrol along the coast with stops at the trading post of Canton in 1853 the routine was broken by a daring expedition as president Millard Fillmore commissioned Commodore Matthew Perry to open up the nation of Japan to American influence for two hundred years the Japanese had shut themselves off from the world and the Great Powers of Europe had either believed it too difficult or worthless to try to change that pattern. Ironically the Americans who sowed the wind of their audacity had to reap the whirlwind 90 years later. When Perry steam frigates arrived in Tokyo Bay they were received with awe. The

Japanese were very polite. There was no trouble. And very soon other foreign nations opened relations and the Japanese undertook to modernize their country with an immense disciplined effort. They went from the Middle Ages to modern times in a space of only 50 years. Meanwhile the Chinese market is still the most important was in turmoil. The armies of the Emperor battled the red coats of Queen Victoria a situation that led to the first real American Military Adventure in the Far East. And Woodrow Snowe explains that the Chinese didn't make too much distinction between England and the United States. And in consequence they receive some severe punishment from Americans the most interesting event was in 1856 when Captain Andrew Howell fort of the Portsmouth who owned a Commodore Armstrong was engaged in the work of protecting the Americans and Canton

established a number of fortified posts in the city but beyond this did everything possible to keep the Americans. Clear of the English and the Chinese fighting. But there was fighting aplenty all around the Americans both the floating ashore and it happened on November 15 1856 when foot was rowing past one of the forts of the city and the Chinese fired upon him. The American flag was waved vigorously toward the fort and what fired his revolver toward it. By way of protest but they continued to fire on foot and the next day the forts were bombarded by the Portsmouth and on the twentieth ascent percent of the Portsmouth in the Levant. Bombarded the four that had been first guilty of assault Incidentally the Levant was the craft on which the man without a country. And. They had. Quite a mix up then what took four howitzers in the

force of two hundred eighty seven men and they landed right there and they crossed the rice fields and waited a creek waist deep. And attacked the fort in the rear and the Chinese fled. The Marines killed more than 40 of the Chinese soldiers and the guns of the captured forthwith turned on the fort that was next in line and that was soon silenced and meanwhile the Chinese four said about all three thousand men came out to overwhelm the Americans but the Americans fired a single howitzer and all of the 3000 Chinese ran away. And during the two or three days that followed other thoughts were taken until the American flag had been planted on four of the four of us. And just think that was way back in 1856 and very few of us today know about that. The Shanghai incident was not the only conflict during those years there were pirates

off Mindanao and the Navy sometimes engaged them. The waters of Korea were very dangerous and several times the Marines went ashore to punish the Koreans for acts of murder and pillage committed against shipwrecked American sailors. In 1973 the Marines attacked and occupied a Korean fortress during such a punitive expedition. And so the American flag was first raised over another nation that was to be tied up inextricably into our contemporary history. By 1890 the United States had become a second ranking world power. She had important trade relations with the Far East but in the Imperial scramble that had placed the flags of Western nations all over the earth. She had gained nothing. She had expanded her Continental frontiers but her overseas trade still had to be carried on in waters controlled by her rivals to some Americans. This was intolerable. Those who read Captain Mohan's work about the influence of sea power upon history pointed out that it was impossible for the United

States Navy to operate effectively outside of coastal waters. Led by men like Alfred Beveridge and Theodore Roosevelt they clamored for foreign adventures which would raise the American flag in distant corners of the globe preferably those with good harbors. In this light it was more than moral to fight Spain as we did in 1898. It was expedient as well and it is significant that the first battle of that war was fought not in Cuba which we were trying to liberate but in Manila Bay in the Philippines where an American fleet under Admiral Dewey steamed boldly into the harbor and blasted the ineffective Spanish flotilla out of the water after a siege of the city fell. And Old Glory was raised over the capital of the Philippines and its leading fortress the small island in the bay known as Corregidor. That same year the American flag was raised over another pacific outpost as the Hawaiian islands became an American possession. American naval planners were especially interested in an inlet off the port of Honolulu. It went by the

beautiful name of Pearl Harbor the turn of the century saw the United States and Sconce in Hawaii and the Philipines strange Oriental names like who Honolulu Manila Luzon and later appeared in newspapers in Moline and Muncie. But the American grip on her Asian possessions was not yet secure. The Filipinos had hoped that the Americans would liberate them. Instead they found that they had exchanged one master for another under a mill you are going Aldo. They revolted. The army that had fought the Spanish-American War had been disbanded. America had to raise a new one. Thomas Larrabee Massachusetts department commander of the United Spanish-American War veterans served in the Philippine insurrection. He explains how he enlisted. I was in St. Paul Minnesota at the time and they were having. They were having a call for. Philippine service.

That which I went there and then listed. When I enlisted in the Philippines. At that time there was a novice or they was a major up there in the recruiting and he read the story off to US dollars. He says why it is a says and they told us all the treacherous plagues that happening over there will never come back alive again. Kind of discouraging us. So we didn't pay any attention to that. The Philippine insurrection was America's first jungle war. At various times Americans had fought on both sides in guerrilla conflicts but with the exception of the seminal wars they had never experienced the rigors of a tropical campaign. The Philippine war was very much like the fighting in Vietnam today and the guerrillas usually had the initiative now as then. Thomas Laramie now

87 recalls a battle. Why did they attack the bad get the Navara. They attack that just one night on a Friday night. They made most of their attacks on a Friday night. And we all would expected that but that night we didn't and I happened to be on guard down and I'll post less about it from here. Oh I would say they had the building there I was on number 2 outpost a jail they started to throw in by way of they held it all down into there and of course. The captain captain lieutenant Wright was what my real plan that Captain Coppinger was my

captain. And they had they were parked way over there. Of course when they threw the volley down I was over one of these going over a stream you know with it with a high crest look like that. Believe me I got behind that president and I stayed there till the patrol come out. Of course the patrol came out. Well probably 10 minutes or so the captain had. The captain mad we had two Hotchkiss cannons that was very big there were the three size three three inch so that we started to pull Lem out and crawl up to the side so we could get them over you know I'd get can when that if you would bend over and regulated to a third that

it explodes. Well I guess we were fired about 10 shots over there. They didn't expect their firings to happen the next day we took a detachment went over there and you are to save the side of your life. Women children all mangled up to pieces one of them shouting broke in among them and we only got about two of them and Sarek goes. But if the conditions of battle have changed but little the conditions of living have changed greatly. While the Viet Cong of today have weapons that are going Aldo's and Sarek those never dreamed of. The American soldier who fights in Vietnam is much closer to home than Thomas Larrabee was 60 years ago. The G.I. often

has access to a clean bed running water and fresh if badly cooked food in the Philippines. It was much more primitive where today's wounded can be evacuated to a modern hospital in an hour or less. The men of the Philippine campaigns had their wounds treated by the equivalent of a medical corpsman. But the medic of those days was not supplied with any of our modern wonder drugs and the food was a far cry from the Russians carried by modern Larrabee describes what his rations were like. Bag. Bacon that was used in Cuba. That's a year before that. We had rice very little flour we needed we didn't know what a loaf of bread looked like for a year after we got over there. No butter no nothing. Hard tack was our main issue.

When we went out on to the next but this year we have or sat with hard tack a base or bacon that was fried to a crisp for all the poison that was out of it I guess. The American army fought campaigns in the Philippines for the first 15 years of the 20th century. They fought the insurrection toes in the southern end of the island. They tangled with the Moros the Spanish hadn't been able to tame them in three hundred years. They were so tough that the standard 38 caliber pistol bullet wouldn't bring them down. So the Army adopted the 45 that still remains the standard sidearm. Finally a semblance of order was imposed upon the islands which lasted for about a quarter of a century. Meanwhile the United States was involved with power politics that came from being very suddenly a major political power in the Pacific in 1900. A battalion of Marines was part of the international force that put down the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1905 Theodore Roosevelt

worried by Japan's unexpected success in the war against Russia mediated the dispute. He hoped to limit Japanese power in the Pacific. He got the Nobel Peace Prize for his actions. The power of the Rising Sun expanded as the years passed. Japan built her industry and then turned it toward war making as the West watched the first world war. She tried to impose her will upon China. And while this attempt was mainly frustrated the pattern of the new expansionism was established. In the era of optimism that followed the end of the first Great War the Harding Administration called a conference to limit the size of the world's navies. The final settlement of the Washington Naval conference of one thousand twenty one allowed the Japanese to build three battleships for every five possessed by Britain and the United States. It looked as though this would keep Japan subordinate to the Western powers. But the war lords in Tokyo were more discerning than those in London and Washington with commitments in other parts of the globe United States and Britain could not keep enough ships in the Pacific to

outweigh the modern Japanese Navy. Ironically while the language of the Washington Treaty and courage the Japanese what it did not say was to be more important. There had been attempts to launch airplanes from ships as early as 910 and a few crude aircraft carriers had been constructed but the Washington Treaty ignored aircraft carriers. The first modern carrier was launched just a year afterward by the United States Navy. The United States and Japan then engage in a race to build the new ships by 1941. United States had a gaggle of them with names that were soon to become famous Lexington enterprise Hornet Yorktown and Wasp. They would turn the tide turn the rising sun into the setting sun. But that was still far in the future. Ten years after the Washington Naval treaty the Japanese occupied Manchuria the world watched six years after that in one thousand thirty seven The sons of the Emperor

marched into the heartland of China again the world watched as beeping one king fell to the aggressors in the second half of that year. Japan became the controller of the mouth of the Yangtze River. That river China's greatest has a special place for Americans for over a third of a century after the Boxer Rebellion. American and British gunboats patrolled its banks to protect Westerners in China. Richard McCann is well-known book The Sand Pebbles was set aboard such a ship in the 900 20s when the Japanese marched up the Yangtze they found those same gun boats patrolling its waters in December of 930 seven. The US river gunboat Pam was a scorching three oil barges on the Yangtze when it was attacked and sunk by Japanese aircraft. The Japanese apologized but America was infuriated angry debate was touched off a dramatized newscast of the time. Set the tone.

President of. The United States gunboat and I had been down on the Yangtze River by Japanese pharma. Together with three American oil tanks. And American seamen child and linger and a tanker captain have been killed. And 18 Americans including Commander Hughes and lieutenant and others have been seriously wounded. Mr. President. Mr. President. There is no longer any doubt that such incidents deliberate. Just to write neutral representatives would rather turn up this debate. No it didn't hit the net. I don't get it. Well it is high time we stop trying to police the world. Mr. President from California I want no war. I will go to any length to prevent a war of any sort. But I will not subscribe to the doctrine. That Americans may be shot down

some place where somebody does not want us. I will not subscribe to the idea that an American gunboat may be blown to pieces because somebody may see fit to take a shot and then subsequently with tongue in the cheek say that they are sorry and apologize. Bet the president that of about a fifth the president no Saturday there were four already dances concerning They already. Think to do the right thing that thing. It withdraw our activity from the Orient at that time. It may be hot on r.k but in the long run it will be easier on top down while the nation debated the world plunge toward Holocaust a retired Air Corps officer Claire Schoen Ault arranged to use American Service Pilots on leave to fly combat missions over China. Their shark painted kurtas fighters soon became familiar around the globe as the

Flying Tigers. American trucks rolled up the Burma Road reinforcements were sent to the Philippines. The first peacetime draft in history became law. Shipments of scrap iron and oil to Japan were forbidden from Tokyo. American ambassador Joseph Grew warned that war was imminent. Where were you on the afternoon of December 7th 1941. If your name is Michelle B Austral you were at Carnegie Hall tightening the strings of your violin for the Sunday afternoon performance. If you're Gerald NYE. You're addressing 2200 America firster is in Pittsburgh. If your name is supposed to Caruso you are waiting in the outer office of Cornell hall. If you're a sailor named Thomas at a place called Pearl Harbor you won two thousand one hundred sixteen of your buddies will be dead when the day is done. We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor

Hawaii by air President Roosevelt has just announced it back also was made on all naval and military activities on the principal island of Ohio. President of the United States. If your name is Sam Rayburn Mr. Gavel in rapid order. Has a joint session of senators and representatives many of them better phones of a man on the rostrum. Cheering him madly. Because like most Americans they are angry frightened and confused and he is the president of the United States. Yesterday. Somebody 7. 1941. A date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately backed by naval and air forces of the Empire

of Japan. The attack yesterday. On the Hawaiian island has severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives been lost with guns but you know with the funding determination of people we will again be an inevitable triumph so help us. For four years. Americans sweated and bled across the Pacific at places like Guadalcanal Iraq and late today. And when it was all over when MacArthur had made good his promise to return the United States found itself not just a Pacific power but the Pacific power while the

older powers of Europe left their Asian possessions one by one the Americans moved in to consolidate their position. It meant fighting a war in Korea financing another in China and eventually it led to Vietnam. What does one hundred and eighty years of history mean to the present conflict. That question cannot be answered categorically. But some points are clear since the first Navy frigate patrolled the South China Sea the United States has believed that Asia should be kept open for American trade and influence. She has been willing to fight in order to maintain that policy since the turn of the century. America has believed that she has a place in Asia that she has a right to maintain a presence there. We have subscribed to no Monroe Doctrine on the South China Seas. Today. Our commitment to Asia is greater than at any time since the Second World War. It may be that we place too much emphasis on that part of the world but it

may also be a symbol of the fact that we have always relied on Western power to keep Asia from slipping into anarchy. Before World War 2 there were three independent nations in the Orient China Thailand and Japan. The rest of the region was controlled by Western powers. Today Britain France and the Netherlands have virtually turned away from Asia. If Western influence is to remain it will have to be supplied from the United States. This nation has followed a consistent line of Asian policy for almost 200 years now like the understudy that has stepped from the chorus to the lead role. We are the center of attention. The choice of whether to close the show or to go on with it is up to us. Our new position in Asia is either a temptation an opportunity or a trap depending on one's sympathy and the nation's actions. In any case we have been rehearsing to play this part since the Empress of China slipped past Sandy Hook bound to Canton with a cargo of Medford

rum. It was. It really. Lord. This program was written and produced by Jonathan Margolis. We invite you to

tune in again next week at this time for another Vietnam War report. With. With. This is the eastern educational radio network.