The Politics of Intervention

40 THE POLITICS OF INTERVENTION

authoritarian rule. The President could suspend certain per­
sonal rights in times of emergency, remove provincial and
municipal officials, grant pardons and amnesties, and carry
over the annual budget if Congress failed to approve a new
one. Lip-service was paid to the Military Government's educa­
tional and public health programs, but no specific responsi­
bility was assumed to carry them through, much less continue
them in the spirit in which they were begun.^38
The Military Government wielded little influence in consti­
tutionalizing Wood's reforms because its political energies
were directed by Root to working out the future relationship
of Cuba and the United States. The basic statement of Amer­
ican policy, later embodied as the Platt Amendment, is con­
tained in a letter from Secretary Root to General Wood on
February 1, 1901. Though Root's specific proposals were re­
worded and added to, the basic premise of his letter remained:
that Cuba could best develop as an independent nation, but
that her strategic position in the Caribbean, her history and
her economy placed her in a unique relationship with the
United States which necessitated some American control.
Therefore, the two nations must bear the duties and obliga­
tions of this relationship. On Cuba's part this meant that its
government must assume the responsibilities toward its people
and other nations taken by the United States in the Treaty
of Paris. The United States would meet its responsibility by
guaranteeing Cuban independence and a stable, solvent,
republican government.
39

The final draft of Root's plan was written by the Senate
committee of Orville H. Platt. An administration-sponsored
measure, the Platt Amendment became law as part of the
Army Appropriation Act of 1901. Debate was short, and the
amendment passed by almost a straight party vote in both
houses. Appended to the Cuban Constitution and later ratified
as a treaty between the two nations, the Platt Amendment
defined the relationship between the United States and Cuba
for the next thirty-three years. As adopted it provided:

I. That the government of Cuba shall never enter into any treaty or
other compact with any foreign power or powers which will impair or