Leonard Wood Served as military governor of Cuba from December, 1899 to May, 1902. As the instrument of United States policy in Cuba, Wood’s administration provides an excellent example of the American touch in meeting the troublesome question of imperialism. This subject of exercising power over other people, as much debated today as it was at the turn of the century, was fully appreciated in its ramifications by those who formulated the Cuban policy of the United States: Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, Secretary of War Elihu Root, Senator Orville H. Platt and General Leonard Wood. Having gone to war with Spain on the basis of the Joint Resolution of April 20, 1898, with the famous fourth clause inserted by Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado, that Cuba would be left to the Cubans once the island was pacified, the United States refused to acquire Cuba at the Paris peace conference of December, 1898. The United States was pledged to give Cuba her freedom, but opinions divided over the time needed to pacify the island and ensure future stability. Hopefully, by tracing the actions of the military government with regard to schools, courts, the economy, government and the Platt Amendment, it may be seen that General Wood, far from being a bureaucratic proconsul in khaki, attempted to prepare Cubans for managing their own affairs.