Why History Lessons Have to be Honest

One of the revelations to me was how even my private school education and public college education had never covered the American subjugation of the Phillipino independence movement prior to and during the Spanish American War and into the Theodore Roosevelt Presidency. My country hunted down (like a dog) the George Washington of the Phillipines, Emilio Aguinaldo.
Had that history been taught us and those who conducted the Vietnam War before us, perhaps we would have chosen a different path.
My country can not even claim its paternalistic rule of the Phillipines protected it from the hegemony of other world powers because Congress never funded meaningful defense of the Phillipines from Japanese invasion in 1941 and subsequently the Phillipines were occupied. The lesson of that of course is that colonialism like slavery is part of our past, but it should not be part of the legacy we bequest to future generations.
Had the past White House occupants seriously considered a paternalistic sponsorship of foreign governments (i.e. that of Saddam Hussein as our proxie in his war against Iran) and in other instances occupation of them as counter-productive to our national interest (i.e. that of present day Iraq), the lessons of the Phillipino would have been honored.