Atrocity on trial: The court-martial of Littleton Waller.

摘要

Despite extensive literature pertaining to atrocities that occurred during Anglo-American expansion in North America and during the Second Indochina War, very little study pertains to atrocities during the Philippine-American War, specifically their justification and the causation. This study analyzes the general court-martial of United States Marine Corps Major Littleton W. T. Waller through a review of the official court transcripts, contemporaneous newspaper accounts, and existing secondary literature about the Philippine-American War. The result of the research implies that atrocities do not occur in a command vacuum, but due to the deliberate articulation of a policy or the existence of an atmosphere of permissiveness which condones the commission of atrocities. This paper belongs in the growing atrocity literature and illustrates the need for greater research into the role of senior political and military leadership in creating the conditions for the commission of atrocities.