“In Honor of Mr. Mark Twain” from Homage to Pacifica
–  Lou Harrison

The text is Mark Twain’s thoughts on the U.S. invasion of the Philippines in 1899, 65 years before the U.S. Congress’ Gulf of Tonkin resolution heralded the deepening involvement of the United States in Vietnam.

Text from Homage to Pacifica

“We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them, destroyed their fields; burned their villages, and turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors; furnished heartbreak by exile to some dozens of disagreeable patriots: subjugated the remaining ten millions by Benevolent Assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket; we have acquired property in the three hundred concubines and other slaves of our business partner, the Sultan of Sulu, and hoisted our protecting flag over that swag. And so, by these Providences of God—and the phrase is the government’s, not mine—we are a World Power.” – Mark Twain on the Philippine War