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According to the way he told it, Theodore Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, shortly before the outbreak of the Spanish-American war took advantage of his boss's absence on a Friday afternoon to order Commodore Dewey to steam from Hong Kong to Manila in anticipation of fighting. This in turn resulted in Dewey being in position to launch the battle of Manila almost as soon as war was declared. Winning the battle at Manila and follow on efforts to get all Spanish forces there to surrender got the US possession of the Philippines.

So if the SecNav, roosevelt's boss, had been more workaholic that Friday, would Dewey have never been sent to Manila?

Since the war was about Cuba at the start, might a pacific front and pacific territorial acquisitions from Spain have been avoided, with action only on the Caribbean front?

Controversy over Cuba had brewed since 1895. There had been controversies over Cuba in prior decades as well. Was 1898 the first time it was likely or possible for a Spanish American war to lead to conflict not just in the Caribbean, but in the western Pacific as well?
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