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Article: The Maine Event; Terrorist acts! Warmongering politicians! Greedy press barons! Put them all together and you've got the first world war the United States waged, a strange and almost-forgotten conflict called the Spanish-American War.
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- June 12, 1998
- Author:
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Remember the Maine? No? What about Capt. Charles D. Sigsbee?
Or Lt. Richmond Pearson Hobson? Well, then, how about the Hero of
Manila, Admiral George Dewey? You remember: the man who uttered the
immortal words, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." Still
clueless? Well, surely the Rough Riders ring a bell. You know,
Teddy Roosevelt and the Battle of San Juan Hill?
For the historically impaired, it was, in Secretary of State John
Hay's phrase, "a splendid little war" that incidentally transformed
America into an imperial world power. But 100 years after it
happened, who now remembers the Spanish-American War? There's
nothing approaching the huzzahs and hoopla of the Civil War ...