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Authors

Adam D.; Burns

Abstract

Between 1900 and 1913, Republican William Howard Taft maintained a keen interest in preserving a US imperial connection with the Philippines. Following defeat in his presidential reelection campaign of 1912, Taft became the unofficial leader of a “retentionist” movement to stop the US Democratic Party from making any firm promise of future independence for the islands, which he saw as a “policy of scuttle.” Thisarticle brings light to the underexplored role Taft played in this movement, which proved a marked contrast to the route the US ultimately took in its interventions across the globe in the twentieth century and beyond.Keywords: US–Philippine relations • Philippine independence • Jones Act (Philippine Organic Act) • US imperialism

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