Declaring Victory

Abstract

This chapter discusses Pershing’s full-spectrum counterinsurgency efforts to hold or stabilize Moro society. These efforts included encouraging the development of a new leadership cadre among Moros, supporting very limited school building and teacher training for secular education, priming the pump for capital investments by sponsoring the Zamboanga Fair, providing limited funding for infrastructure improvements, improving public health, and discouraging Moro identification with the global Islamic umma. When Pershing left Moro Province in late 1913, he knew that his “victory” in countering Moro insurgency was, at best, a limited one. In writing his last annual governor’s report, he revealed what complete victory would mean—an end to polygamy and concubinage (which he had hitherto ignored), an undermining of patriarchal datu control (which he, as a fellow datu, had hitherto supported), and a weakening of Islamic cleric power (which he had hitherto left untouched). Completing the task of governing Moro Province would require that American civilians guarantee personal rights and liberties and promote secular education for Moro girls as well as boys. The American military had done its job of pacification and stabilization. It could declare “victory” and go home.