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Jacob H. Smith

From Wikiquote
Make Samar a howling wilderness.

General Jacob Hurd Smith (January 29, 1840 – March 1, 1918) was a U.S. Army officer notorious for ordering indiscriminate retaliation on the island of Samar in response to what is called the Balangiga massacre during the Philippine–American War..

Quotes

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  • The major said that General Smith instructed him to kill and burn, and said that the more he killed and burned the better pleased he would be; that it was no time to take prisoners, and that he was to make Samar a howling wilderness. Major Waller asked General Smith to define the age limit for killing, and he replied "Everything over ten."
    • Testimony of Major Littletown Waller, accused of shooting eleven unarmed Filipinos on Samar, as described by other officers. Quoted in Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States (2003) ch. 12, p. 315
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