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The introduction begins by describing the Battle of Bayang in Lanao, Philippines, in May 1902. It then introduces John J. Pershing, his formative experience commanding Sioux scouts and Tenth Cavalry African American soldiers, and his Progressive Era context. It discusses his time in Zamboanga, Mindanao, and his intimate relationship with the Filipina Joaquina Bondoy Ignacio. It describes the Maranao Moro social-political world in which he immersed himself. And it examines how the bloodbath at Bayang impelled him to begin shaping a more effective and less-lethal way of fighting small wars.

Chapter 1 examines Pershing’s early implementation of counterinsurgency ideas among Maranao Moros in 1902. He stressed the importance of learning about Maranao culture and political divisions and of applying that learning in alliance building to isolate hostile Moros in an ever-diminishing minority. He set the stage for successful military campaigns to follow. But he also made mistakes in his culturally myopic attempt to impose American concepts of justice on Maranao Moro datus (chiefs). By 1903, he had learned from his mistakes enough to attain the high honor of being elected a datu by Maranao leaders.

This chapter analyzes the multiracial intersections of the Mexican Revolution, using the case of Pershing’s Expedition into Mexico in 1916 1917 to explore the escalating importance that both states attached to race, immigration, and citizenship in the borderlands. South of the border, military service clarified the citizenship status of African Americans while Mexicans and Chinese immigrants found themselves caught in a dangerous space between two states – one state (Mexico) that could not sufficiently protect them from revolutionary violence and another (the United States) that remained uncertain about whether to protect them at all. As U.S. immigration officials tightened the border against thousands of men, women, and children fleeing for their safety and security, the power of the U.S. state became more clearly visible in the borderlands. This chapter analyzes how people caught between revolution and exclusion renegotiated their relationship with the state. In desperate straits, Mexican immigrants reconstructed their identities from political refugees to desirable laborers, while Chinese immigrants re-branded themselves as deserving refugees rather than excludable laborers. The chapter thus elaborates the ways in which immigrants and officials refined the distinctions between the diverse groups in the borderlands.

This chapter describes the so-called intellectual baggage that set the context for the Anglo-American negotiations of 1937–1941 by examining the experience of the respective national military leaders and planners in the period 1900–1918. The narrative addresses the absence of U.S. coalition experience prior to April 1917 as well as early Anglo-French collaboration before World War I. The focus of this chapter is on coalition activities of the Allied and Associated Powers in World War I. Specifically, the chapter addresses the sometimes tortured progress surrounding unity of strategic direction, unity of command, and the strategy mechanisms necessary for successful coalition collaboration. The narrative contrasts the relative success of amalgamating or integrating British and American naval forces with the tremendous frictions surrounding the amalgamation of the American Expeditionary Force with British and French forces.

Toward the end of June 1917, the War Department informed Charles Summerall that he would go to England and France as a member of a commission to study the types and the employment of field artillery. The chief of staff sent for him and in great secrecy handed a letter addressed to “General John J. Pershing. For his eyes alone.” In London, the hotels were gay with many British officers in their handsome blue uniforms and elaborately dressed women. Everything was being done to give officers and men on leave a maximum of pleasure and to keep up morale. Upon returning to Washington, the chief of staff sent for Charles and stated that the secretary of war had directed him to appoint Charles as president of a board on types of artillery for the war and to have him select the other members.