US Army influence of 19th century Philippines

John M. Gates historical narrative of the pacification of the Philippines.

Many American commanders in the Philippines never lost sight of two things. First, their goal was to obtain Filipino acceptance of American rule in a way that would gain the cooperation of the Filipino people and prevent the need to hold the Philippines through the continued use of military force. Second, to accomplish that goal the army and the colonial government had to provide acceptable political, economic, and social alternatives to those put forth by the revolutionaries. Both the compatibility of American and Filipino liberalism and the progressive orientation of the army's officers helped the Americans accomplish their goal of gaining Filipino acceptance of American sovereignty.

Analogy on Philippines being Iraq of the 19th century is showing, not Vietnam. Then as now, the US Army played an important role to the masses.