Sex, Lies and the Spanish American War (general, Mexico, 1950s)

[Grandstander]

It is probably America's least well known war. If asked what they knew of it, the typical response might be:
1) Yellow journalism
2) Maine blows up
3) Dewey in Manilla Bay
4) Teddy R and the Rough Riders

The slightly more advanced class might add
5) Yellow fever

I wish to concentrate on the first from that list...yellow journalism.

This references the rivalries among American newspapers of the 1890's to outsell one another via the use of sensationalism. Most frequently it is specifically associated with the war between William Randolph Hearst's "Journal" and Joseph Pulitzer's "World." The name "yellow journalism" arose from Hearst's pioneering employment of colored ink for the Sunday funnies. One cartoon strip was called "The Yellow Kid" and the early color printing technology often went astray and left a large yellow blot where the kid's clothes were. The paper got nicknamed "The Yellow Press" and when Pulitzer followed in the practice with the same smeary results, The World and The Journal were "The Yellow Presses."

In association with the Spanish American war, the most famous related incident was when Frederick Remmington, who had been sent to Cuba by Pulitzer to cover Revolution # 11, the last one before the American intervention, wired Pulitzer for permission to come home, complaining that nothing was going on, there was no war to cover. Pulitzer cabled back "Please remain. You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war."

So what exactly did these papers, and others in the same hysterics trade, do to help get the war started? Mainly it was working on the mentalities of American citizens, getting them worked up with stories of Spanish atrocities in Cuba, most of which were completely untrue. Spanish officers charged with battling the native insurgents were always "Butchers." Spanish soldiers were depraved and sadistic. Cuban revolutionaries were always plucky and heroic.

The one story which rose above all others to inflame American passions was that of Evangelina Cosío y Cisneros. She was the young, extremely attractive daughter of a Cuban revolutionay who was caught and imprisoned on the Isle of Pines. Evangelina came to live on the island to be near her father.

In August of 1897...either...

By Spanish accounts, Evangelina lured the commandant of the prison, Colonel Jose Berriz, to a rendevous at her home, and when he arrived he was jumped upon and nearly beaten to death by three Cuban assailants.

By Cuban accounts, the Colonel broke into her home with the intent to ravish her, but she managed to fight him off with the aid of household servants.

Ms. Cosio y Cisneros was arrested and incarcerated in Recojidas prison, where she had two rooms to herself and comfortable conditions.

Hearst and Pulitzer sniffed gold with this story. Both papers accepted Evangelina's account without question, and both portrayed her as being held in a rathole, enduring beatings and starvation..all because she fought to protect her maidenly honor.

She became a sensation, with an amazingly long list of celebrities signing petitions which demanded her release. 200,000 English women signed, including the Queen. She was now the "Cuban Joan of Arc" and the most famous prisoner in western civilization.

Hearst decided to go Pulitzer one better. He hired a burly writer named Karl Decker to go to Cuba and smuggle Evangelina out of jail. This he accomplished with generous bribes to the guards, funded by Hearst, but naturally a story was invented telling of a clever and dangerous plan involving hacksaws, rooftop leaps and frustrated pursuit.

Hearst brought Evangelina to New York where she was an absolute sensation wherever she went. She went on tour with her rescuer Decker, captivating audiences with the bs story of the "escape." And everywhere she went, left in her wake were thousands of infatuated American males who wanted to strike a blow at the Spanish for their unspeakable treatment of this godess.

That was the mood of the nation six months before the Maine exploded.

[CAVA1990]

Yellow journalism====>Yellow cake. The more things change.......

[chickenfriedbananas]

dude...yer like lyin...we r usa...were no 1...yer just made cuz we can buy a house...hahahahaha....

[Manolón]

Spain indeed committed atrocities in Cuba, the "reconcentration policy" of General Valeriano Weyler. More than 300.000 peasants were gathered in concentration camps and they starved to death. Crueller than the Boer reconcentration and a precedent of Nazi concentration camps.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by Manolón

Spain indeed committed atrocities in Cuba, the "reconcentration policy" of General Valeriano Weyler. More than 300.000 peasants were gathered in concentration camps and they starved to death. Crueller than the Boer reconcentration and a precedent of Nazi concentration camps.

I did not suggest that they didn't, merely that the American Yellow Press went far beyond the truth in reporting the behavior of the Spanish officials in Cuba.

Weyler of course was not trying to kill the peasants by gathering them in guarded concentrations, the idea was to seperate the non revolutionary element of the population from the revolutionary one. The Cuban rebels had been operating as insurgents, ambush the Spainiards and then melt back into the population. The concentration of the non hostiles was supposed to make it harder for the rebels to find refuge anywhere. This was very much the idea practiced by the US in Vietnam with the Strategic Hamlet program. Of course it all backfired on Spain, the concentration killing far more people with a friendly disposition toward Spain than those who were resisting.

Spain stopped the practice in late 1897 when the government which was supporting Weyler fell and its replacement recalled him. What didn't stop was the Yellow Press depiction of the horrors, real or imaginary.

[ScoPro]

My grandparents' dentist in northwest Missouri up until the early 1950s had been a US Army dentist during the Spanish American War. His name was Dr.Lisbona, and he lived & practiced in the small town of Maitland.

While visiting my grandparents in the '50s, I would sometimes chat with one of their neighbors, a loner named Charlie, who had been a US Army private & fought in Cuba in that war. Charlie lived in a little 2 room house with no indoor plumbing. He survived on a veteran's pension of $16 a month, IIRC. When he passed away in the early 1960s, Charlie willed his tiny house and $1,000 cash to my grandparents.

[Manolón]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

I did not suggest that they didn't, merely that the American Yellow Press went far beyond the truth in reporting the behavior of the Spanish officials in Cuba.

Weyler of course was not trying to kill the peasants by gathering them in guarded concentrations, the idea was to seperate the non revolutionary element of the population from the revolutionary one. The Cuban rebels had been operating as insurgents, ambush the Spainiards and then melt back into the population. The concentration of the non hostiles was supposed to make it harder for the rebels to find refuge anywhere. This was very much the idea practiced by the US in Vietnam with the Strategic Hamlet program. Of course it all backfired on Spain, the concentration killing far more people with a friendly disposition toward Spain than those who were resisting.

Spain stopped the practice in late 1897 when the government which was supporting Weyler fell and its replacement recalled him. What didn't stop was the Yellow Press depiction of the horrors, real or imaginary.

----

Yes, but that lead to the starvation of hundred of thousands, even Spanish settlers were reconcentrated. An estimated of 300.000 deaths or even more.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

My grandparents' dentist in northwest Missouri up until the early 1950s had been a US Army dentist during the Spanish American War. His name was Dr.Lisbona, and he lived & practiced in the small town of Maitland.

While visiting my grandparents in the '50s, I would sometimes chat with one of their neighbors, a loner named Charlie, who had been a US Army private & fought in Cuba in that war. Charlie lived in a little 2 room house with no indoor plumbing. He survived on a veteran's pension of $16 a month, IIRC. When he passed away in the early 1960s, Charlie willed his tiny house and $1,000 cash to my grandparents.

My grandfather was a Spanish American war vet who fought and was shot in the Phillipines under General MacArthur. I have the purple heart he was later given for it.

[BlackShoe]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

It is probably America's least well known war. If asked what they knew of it, the typical response might be:
1) Yellow journalism
2) Maine blows up
3) Dewey in Manilla Bay
4) Teddy R and the Rough Riders.

While the Battle of San Juan Hill and the exploits of Roosevelt are part of our heritage, it has been perhaps overglamorized and has sidestepped the actual horrors of that battle and the Spanish War. For Americans that were there that day, it was anything but glamorous. The Spanish defenders, outnumbered 20 to 1, had three advantages. They held the high ground, they were entrenched in fortifications, and they were armed with the finest battle rifle then in existence, the M93 7MM Mauser, with which they inflicted horrible casualties. 200 Americans died that day, and 1200 more wounded, an awful price to pay for that victory.

[harry chickpea]

Not sure if I would call it the least known war. I doubt most people outside of Texas would know who we fought in the war with Mexico or how the Marines got the name leathernecks fighting Barbary pirates or how the CIA fought the Soviets in Afghanistan and hasted the fall of the Soviet Union, or a host of other actions.

When Dewey came back, Vermont gave a tumultuous welcome, and wanted him to run for President. For the welcoming bonfire, they stacked barrels 60 feet high on the statehouse lawn.