How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

by Daniel Immerwahr

McKinley settled on a half measure. At Roosevelt’s urging, he agreed to station a warship, the USS Maine, off the coast of Havana as a show of resolve. Beyond that, he would continue to wait. Not for long, as it turned out. On February 15, 1898, the Maine mysteriously exploded, killing 262 men. It was, depending on the explanation, possibly an act of war. “I don’t propose to be swept off my feet by the catastrophe,” wrote McKinley the next day. “The country can afford to withhold its judgment and not strike an avenging blow until the truth is known.” Roosevelt displayed none of McKinley’s caution. “Dirty treachery on the part of the Spaniards” was his diagnosis, and the newspapers concurred. “Remember the Maine!” replaced “Remember the Alamo!” as the battle cry of a wounded nation. In retrospect, McKinley was right to hesitate. As far as we can tell, the Maine’s explosion was probably the result of spontaneous combustion in its coal bunkers, a surprisingly common hazard at the time