The Greater United States: Territory and Empire in U.S. History
2016; Oxford University Press; Volume: 40; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/dh/dhw009
ISSN1467-7709
Autores Tópico(s)American Constitutional Law and Politics
Resumois a month diplomatic historians know well.It was when the Viet Minh attacked the French air base at Dien Bien Phu, which ultimately pulled the United States into the Vietnam War.But we speak less of another anticolonial revolt that broke out in another part of the world.Two weeks before Dien Bien Phu, four nationalists entered the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., made their way to the upstairs Ladies' Gallery, unfurled a Puerto Rican flag, pulled out pistols, and fired 29 rounds into the body politic below them.They shot five Congressmen, nearly killing one. 1 To this day, the drawer in the mahogany table used by the Republican leadership to address the House has a jagged hole in it.This was not a freak event.It was but one in a long chain of violent acts undertaken by Puerto Rican nationalists under the leadership of Pedro Albizu Campos, arguably the most important domestic opponent of the U.S. empire in the twentieth century. 2 Albizu's long career defies easy summary.In World War I, inspired by Wilsonian rhetoric of self-determination, Albizu served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.But he grew disillusioned and turned against the U.S. government, becoming, in the words of J. Edgar Hoover (who held him under surveillance for three decades), the "guiding light" of Puerto Rican nationalism. 3Albizu founded Puerto Rico's Army of Liberation in the 1930s.In that decade, his followers bombed numerous federal buildings (including the governor's mansion) and assassinated Puerto Rico's chief of police.After Albizu went to prison, his supporters held a march in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and were gunned down by the police.If you
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