The Politics of Intervention

The Reconstruction of the Cuban Armed Forces 223

historian suggests that Estrada Palma wanted a palace guard
which owed its allegiance strictly to him, for he believed the
Rural Guard was too pro-American or, at least, had little
loyalty to him personally.^4 Whatever Estrada Palma's motives,
the Artillery Corps was armed and trained as infantry, and in
1906 was the nation's only military unit capable of immedi­
ately taking offensive action against rebellion.^5
Discredited and demoralized by its political role in the
elections of 1905 and its military defeats of 1906, the Rural
Guard badly needed American assistance, just as the Provi­
sional Government needed the Rural Guard if it was to
follow a Cubans-fight-Cubans policy. The Rural Guard offi­
cers believed they had followed American teachings by sup­
porting the constitutional government, though in doing so
they antagonized many of their countrymen. Generally loyal
to Estrada Palma, they had failed him and incurred the
Liberal's wrath. They were aware that their ineptness con­
tributed to the government's collapse, for the Rural Guard
had been unable to produce even the hint of effective
resistance, which Estrada Palma might have turned into
American support.^6
Taft, Magoon, and their Army advisers believed the Rural
Guard had acted unwillingly in suppressing the Liberals,
that it remained true to the principles learned under Wood,
and that it longed to return to its legitimate functions.^7 There­
fore, the Provisional Government immediately went to work
to restore public confidence in the Rural Guard, to return
it to its proper duties, and to place it firmly under
American control.
The experience of the Rural Guard after the American
intervention was influenced most by American efforts to pro­
fessionalize it and make it an effective counterguerrilla force.
Shortly after the intervention Taft publicly announced that
the Guard repudiated its past political activities; he then
switched detachments to different posts to reduce local ten­
sions.^8 To command the Rural Guard and the Artillery Corps,