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Playing with Fire: Woodrow Wilson, Self‐Determination, Democracy, and Revolution in Mexico

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 76; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/hisn.12028

1540-6563

Lucas N. Frank,

Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1. Michael H. Hunt, The American Ascendancy: How the United States Gained and Wielded Global Dominance, Chapel Hill, NC: Taylor & Francis, 2007, 24.2. Robert Saunders, In Search of Woodrow Wilson: Beliefs and Behavior, Westport, CT: Taylor & Francis, 1998, 187.3. Lloyd Ambrosius, Wilsonianism: Woodrow Wilson and His Legacy in American Foreign Relations, Cambridge: Taylor & Francis, 1990.4. See Margaret Macmillan, Paris, 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, New York, Taylor & Francis, 2002.5. Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Self‐Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism, Oxford: Taylor & Francis, 2007.6. Manela, The Wilsonian Moment, 25.7. Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson: Revolution, War, and Peace, Boston, MA: Taylor & Francis, 1979. Link, of course, was the editor of the Wilson papers.8. Thomas Knock, To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order, Princeton, NJ: Taylor & Francis, 1995.9. Josefina Zoriada vazquez and Lorenzo Meyer, The United States and Mexico, Chicago, IL: U. of Chicago P., 1987; Mark Gilderhus, Diplomacy and Revolution: US‐Mexican Relations under Wilson and Carranza, Tucson, AZ: Taylor & Francis, 1977.10. "Summons Wilson from Mexico," The New York Times, 17 July 1913.11. "Taft is Relieved by Madero's Fall," The New York Times, 13 February 1913, 1.12. On the international front, no foreign power was in a position to challenge Wilson's policy towards Mexico. The risks associated with challenging the United States along its southern border in 1913 and 1914 were in no case balanced against what any nation or groups of nations had at stake in Mexico. For an in‐depth examination of the foreign policy of Germany and Britain toward the Mexican Revolution, see Nancy Mitchell, The Danger of Dreams: German and American Imperialism in Latin America, Chapel Hill, NC: Taylor & Francis, 1999. At home, domestic politics were still the primary focus, with foreign policy running a distant second. The Mexican crisis' origin at the beginning of Wilson's first term of office further insulated Wilson from domestic pressure.13. Joseph Stout provides an insightful investigation of Carranza's Constitutionalists and how they were affected by the actions of the United States in 1916 and 1917, but his work is more focused on the effects of Wilson's actions than on the goals and rationales behind them (see Joseph A. Stout, Jr., Border Conflicts: Villistas, Carrancistas and the Punitive Expedition, 1915–1920, Fort Worth, TX: Taylor & Francis, 1999). Additionally, in 1916 and 1917 Wilson's reelection campaign and the war in Europe severely clouded the motivations behind the United States' actions in Mexico. Linda Hall offers an insightful look at the United States' actions in Mexico between 1917 and 1924, but during the timeframe she investigates, Wilson is consumed by the First World War (Linda Hall, Oil, Banks, and Politics: The United States and Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1917–1924, Austin, TX: Taylor & Francis, 1995).14. For a detailed investigation of Wilson's presidential campaign see Arthur S. Link, Wilson: The Road to the White House, Princeton, NJ: Taylor & Francis, 1947.15. Woodrow Wilson, "Inaugural Address," The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy, available at: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson1.asp, accessed 8 January 2013.16. The Republicans were strong advocates for the establishment of order and the protection of US citizens and business interests in Mexico, either through support for a strongman like General Huerta. or via US military intervention.17. While his Mexican policy was off limits, Wilson proved willing to use other issues, like his Panama Canal policy, as bargaining chips. Colonel Edward House recorded in his diary in July 1913 that Wilson delayed a reevaluation of the Panama Canal policy in an attempt to curry favor with the Republican opponents of his currency and tariff agenda (see House's papers, Edward Mandell House Papers, 1885–1938 [microfilm:] MS GR 466, HM 236, New Haven, CT: Manuscripts and Archives Department, Yale University Library, 1996, Reel 1, 195).18. Secretary of State to Woodrow Wilson, 20 July 1913, in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, vol. 28, ed. Arthur S. Link, Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1978, 49.19. The parallels between Bryan's thoughts here and the administration's later U‐boat issues raise a host of interesting questions about the administration's response to German attacks and Bryan's later resignation.20. "Address of the President of the United States Delivered at a Joint Session of the Two Houses of Congress, 8 January 1918," in United States Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States [from here: FRUS] 1918. Supplement 1, The World War, Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1918, 15, available at: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.FRUS1913, accessed 23 October 2013 [from here: FRUS].21. Remarks of Woodrow Wilson at a Press Conference, 1 April 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 289.22. Mark Benbow, Leading Them to the Promised Land: Woodrow Wilson, Covenant Theology, and the Mexican Revolution, 1913–1915, Kent, OH: Taylor & Francis, 2010, 129.23. Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 158.24. "Remarks of Woodrow Wilson at a Press Conference," 1 April 1913, in edited by Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 289.25. Entry in the Diary of Colonel House, 2 May 1913, in edited by Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 383.26. Some contemporaries suggested that Ambassador Wilson may have been complicit in the later murder of President Madero and his vice‐president during a prison transfer, but no charges were ever filed.27. Ambassador Wilson to Secretary of State, 8 March 1913, 11 March 1913, 13 March 1913, 16 March 1913, 18 March 1913, and 24 March 1913, in The Bad Yankee, El Peligro Yankee: American Entrepreneurs and Financiers in Mexico, ed. Gene Z. Hanrahan, Chapel Hill, NC: Taylor & Francis, 1985, 120, 124, 125, 137, and 143.28. Secretary of State to Ambassador Wilson, 11 March 1913, in c 122.29. United States Congress Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, "Investigation of Mexican Affairs. Vol. 1: Hearings before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations," Sixty‐Sixth Congress, first session, and Sixty‐Sixth Congress, second session, Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1919, 1757.30. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, "Investigation," 1757; see also Hall, Oil, Banks.31. John Bassett Moore to Woodrow Wilson, 15 May 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 440.32. American Minister to Chile to the Secretary of State, 10 April 1913, FRUS, with the Address of the President to Congress December 2, 1913, 790, available at: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.FRUS1913, accessed 23 October 2013.33. FRUS, with the Address of the President to Congress December 2, 1913, 805–806.34. American Charge d'Affaires at Buenos Aires to Secretary of State, 26 March 1913, FRUS, with the Address of the President to Congress December 2, 1913, 783.35. Entry in the Diary of Colonel House, 2 May 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 383.36. Memorandum by the Secretary of State, 23 May 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 478.37. Ibid., 479.38. A collection of letters between the Governor of Texas and the Secretary of State, 7 April–19 May 1913, FRUS, with the Address of the President to Congress December 2, 1913, 877–880, available at: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.FRUS1913, accessed 23 October 2013.39. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Investigative Records Relating to Mexican Neutrality Violations ("Mexican files"), 1909–21 (S.l.: Taylor & Francis, 1982). The Bureau of Investigation was the direct predecessor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI.40. A collection of letters between the Governor of Texas and the Secretary of State, 7 April–19 May 1913, in FRUS, with the Address of the President to Congress December 2, 1913, 877, available at: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.FRUS1913, accessed 23 October 2013.41. Federico Gamboa to John Lind, 16 August 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 170.42. Ibid.43. FRUS, with the Address of the President to Congress December 2, 1913, 443, available at: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.FRUS1913, accessed 23 October 2013.44. "Wilson Suggests Plan to Mexico," New York Times, 5 August 1913, 1; Remarks of Woodrow Wilson at a Press Conference, 1 April 1913, in edited by Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 289; Remarks of Woodrow Wilson at a Press Conference, 26 May 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 471.45. This comment is mostly likely referring to the murder of former president Madero while in Huerta's custody (Charles Willis Thompson to Reuben Adiel Bull, 22 May 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 465).46. William Jennings Bryan to Woodrow Wilson, 27 May 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 481; Woodrow Wilson to William Jennings Bryan, 27 May 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 48247. Woodrow Wilson to Henry Lane Wilson, 14 June 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 518.48. Ibid.49. Ibid.50. Entry in the Diary of Josephus Daniels, 18 April 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 331.51. Woodrow Wilson Press Conference Remarks, 17 July 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 39.52. Woodrow Wilson Press Conference Remarks, 28 July 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 89.53. Various consular agents to Secretary of State, 16 March 1913, 26 March 1913, in Hanrahan, ed., Bad Yankee, 131–133 and 144.54. Ambassador Wilson to Secretary of State, 8 March 1913, 11 March 1913, 13 March 1913, 16 March 1913, 18 March 1913, 24 March 1913, in Hanrahan, ed., Bad Yankee, 120, 124, 125, 137, and 143.55. President Wilson told the press on 17 July 1913 that the ambassador was being asked to return to Washington so that he could personally brief the president on the situation in Mexico, but the ambassador would never return to his post; the president's communications with Secretary Bryan on 25 June, 1 July, and 3 July clearly show that the president had lost all faith in the integrity and loyalty of the ambassador (see various communications, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 7, 17, 22, and 38).56. William Bayard Hale to Woodrow Wilson, 18 June 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 27, 536–52.57. Woodrow Wilson to Ellen Axson Wilson, 27 July 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 85.58. Ibid.59. Wilson's fixation on securing an unbiased observer may best be highlighted by whom he did not send. Wilson's most famous special representative was Colonel House. Wilson sent House on several diplomatic trips to Europe prior to the United States' entry into the war, and during the postwar period, Colonel House even took the lead in negotiations over the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations covenant in 1919, after Wilson returned to the United States to build Senate support for both measures. House was a native Texan and was knowledgeable of Mexico and its history. While there is no record of House being considered for the task, the most logical reason for his exclusion is that his Texas roots conflicted with Wilson's desire for a completely unbiased opinion.60. Woodrow Wilson to John Lind, 4 August 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 110–11.61. John Lind to Williams Jennings Bryan, 14 August 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 157–9; Federico Gamboa to John Lind, 16 August 1913, in ibid., 168–75.62. John Lind to Secretary of State, 19 September 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 298.63. "Huerta Becomes Mexican Dictator," New York Times, 11 October 1913.64. The Secretary of State to Charge O'Shaughnessy, 24 November 1913, FRUS with the Address of the President to Congress December 8, 1914, 443.65. Ibid.66. Sir Edward Grey to Sir Lionel Carden, 17 November 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 562; Colville Barclay to William Jennings Bryan, 25 November 1913, in ibid., 591.67. A Memorandum by Francisco Escudero for President Wilson, 24 July 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 73–4.68. The Secretary of State to Ambassador W. H. Page, 29 January 1914, FRUS with the Address of the President to Congress December 8, 1914, 445.69. The Secretary of State to Ambassador W. H. Page, 29 January 1914, FRUS with the Address of the President to Congress December 8, 1914, 446.70. William Bayard Hale to Woodrow Wilson, 31 December 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 29, 91.71. Ibid.72. Since Huerta had historically had unlimited access to foreign arms from third party countries via sea trade routes, Wilson's repeal of the embargo served primarily to aid the Northern Rebels.73. "Wilson to Let Rebels Get Arms," New York Times, 26 January 1914.74. Ibid.75. Their arrest was deemed illegal because the sailors docked but did not disembark. The Mexican soldiers boarded their vessel in order to arrest the sailors. Ships were considered to be extensions of their nation's sovereign territory by international law. So when the soldiers boarded the ship they violated U.S. territory.76. For a recent nuanced view, see Elizabeth Mckillen, "Ethnicity, Class and Wilsonian Internationalism Reconsidered: The Mexican‐American and Irish‐American Immigrant Left and U.S. Foreign Relations, 1914–1922," Diplomatic History 4, 2001, 553–587: 561.77. Chargé O'Shaughnessy to the Secretary of State, 14 April 1914, FRUS with the Address of the President to Congress December 8, 1914, 460.78. Chargé O'Shaughnessy to Secretary of State, 15 April 1914, FRUS with the Address of the President to Congress December 8, 1914, 464.79. Various telegrams, April 1914, FRUS with the Address of the President to Congress December 8, 1914, 455–75.80. Secretary of State to Chargé O'Shaughnessy, 14 April 1914, FRUS with the Address of the President to Congress December 8, 1914, 459.81. The Senate Testimony of William F. Buckley, 9 December 1919, in Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, "Investigation," 780 and 786.82. Ibid.83. The Senate Testimony of various businessmen, in Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, "Investigation."84. See also Mark T. Gilderhus, The Second Century: US‐Latin‐American Relations since 1889, Wilmington, DE: Taylor & Francis, 2000, 45.85. The Senate Testimony of William F. Buckley, 9 December 1919, in Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, "Investigation," 792.86. Ibid., 792–3: Buckley went on to testify that both John Lind and Secretary Bryan told him that the Antilla was just the beginning and that the Constitutionalists "had arranged to get all the arms and ammunition they wanted; that this would be accomplished by having ships take out their papers to Habana and then go to Tampico; and that the American Government had consented to the evasion."87. "Antilla's Cargo Landed," New York Times, 11 June 1914; Manuel Calero, The Mexican Policy of President Woodrow Wilson as it Appears to a Mexican, New York: Taylor & Francis, 1916, 27.88. Ambrosius, Wilsonianism, 38; Saunders, In Search, 187.89. Hunt, American Ascendancy, 57.90. Ibid.91. John Lind to Secretary of State, 19 September 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 298.92. Ibid.93. Secretary of State to John Lind, 17 January 1914, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 29, 138; John Lind to Nelson O'Shaughnessy, 5 April 1914, ibid., 405.94. Lloyd E. Ambrosius, "Democracy, Peace, and World Order" in Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson: Progressivism, Internationalism, War and Peace, ed. John Milton Cooper, Washington DC: Taylor & Francis, 2008, 239.95. Woodrow Wilson, Press Conference Remarks, 21 July 1913, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 28, 57.96. Ibid.97. The Senate Testimony of William F. Buckley, 9 December 1919, in Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, "Investigation," 777.98. Benbow, Leading Them, 127–128.99. Sir Cecil Arthur Spring Rice to Sir Edward Grey, 6 February 1914, in Link, ed., Wilson Papers, vol. 29, 228.100. However, context was rarely so favorable to Wilson pursuing his preferred path. While they need to be explored in more depth, other case studies, such as Haiti, may reveal more about Wilson's evaluation of those peoples' current potential rather than about Wilson's desired endstate.101. Frank Ninkovich, The Wilsonian Century, Chicago, IL: Taylor & Francis, 1999.102. David M. Kennedy, "What Would Wilson Do?," The Atlantic Monthly 1, January–February 2010, 93.103. Ibid., 92 and 94.104. Mark Gilderhus, Pan‐American Visions: Woodrow Wilson in the Western Hemisphere, 1913–1921, Tucson, AZ: Taylor & Francis, 1986, 1.Additional informationNotes on contributorsLucas N. FrankMajor Lucas Frank taught history at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This piece is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan Cecil Petigny, teacher, advisor, friend.