In 1901, on far-away Balangiga—a village in Eastern Samar of the Philippines—an American general gave an order that stripped away any notion of “civilizing” or “Christianizing” a foreign people: “ Make it a howling wilderness.” General Jacob H. Smith’s command—accompanied by the instruction to “kill everyone over ten”—was not an aberration. It was consistent with a decision made only a few years earlier about America becoming one of the “great” nations. The government would abandon its anti-imperial tradition and join the ranks of empire. The events at Balangiga were recorded but not broadcast