F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, WYOMING ¨C U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday formally returned church bells to the Philippines that were taken as war trophies over a century ago following gruesome clashes, seeking to close a contentious chapter in the two allies¡¯ shared history.
The decision to return the ¡°Bells of Balangiga¡± to the Philippines ends a decades-long quest by Manila, including by President Rodrigo Duterte, and is expected to bolster U.S.-Philippines¡¯ relations.
But it has upset some U.S. veterans and Wyoming¡¯s delegation to the U.S. Congress, which uniformly opposed returning bells that were a memorial to the 45 U.S. soldiers who were killed during a surprise attack on Sept. 28, 1901, in the central town of Balangiga.
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