“Your military accomplishments are not affected by the things you did outside the service.” —Brig. Gen. Restituto Aguilar
Well, this is certainly inspiring.
Sure, but your military legacy is affected by stuff you make up about it outside of the service.
Like, oh I don’t know, 27 medals that magically appeared, or the fact that the group he supposedly led has repeatedly (since 1945) been identified as a forgery.
Ah well. Alfred McCoy did the work.
Anyway, this is one of my favorite findings:
In addition, the US Veteran’s Administration helped by the Philippine army, found in 1950 that some people who had claimed membership in Marcos’s unit had actually been committing ‘atrocities’ against Filipino civilians rather than fighting the Japanese and had engaged in what the VA called ‘nefarious activity,’ including selling contraband to the enemy. The records include no direct evidence linking Marcos to those activities.
Most of the real guerrilleros have passed on; but almost all say the same thing: They don’t remember Marcos and his mythological band of brothers.
