Petroleum Interest

Josephus Danials on the April 1914 U.S. Invasion of Veracruz

"Washington, D.C.
April 21, 1914

Fletcher
Vera Cruz, Mexico
Seize custom house.  Do not permit war supplies to be delivered to Huerta government or to any other party.

Danials”

This terse Communiqué from Secretary of Navy Josephus Danials to Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher brought an end to the lives of over 200 Mexican Naval Cadets and an undetermined number of Veracruz citizens, although it failed to prevent the war supplies aboard the S.S. Ypiranga from being eventually delivered to the Huerta government.

The actual objective of protecting American control over strategic resources in Mexico, and of influencing the outcome of the Mexican Revolution, was revealed in a round-about way by Josephus Danials, some thirty years later, in his memoir:

Unexpected resistance to the April 1914 U.S. Invasion of Veracruz

Protecting American interests in strategic materials such as oil, rubber, copper and zinc, was, according to the reasonable account of John Mason Hart, the Wilson administration's reasoning for invasion of Veracurz.   The administration sought to bring about a beneficial stability through a policy of regime change.  

However, it wasn't the regime of Victoriano Huerta, targeted for change, that was actual problem for the American holders of Mexican properties, but rather, the expropriations of Pancho Villa.  Texas and Wall Street interests were growing worried as Villa's influence grew in the vicinity of Tampico.    The objective of the Wilson policy was not so much the overthrow of Huerta, but to insure that Venustiano Carranza came out on top.  

April 1914 U.S. Invasion of Veracruz: a cast of characters

The cast of characters engaged in and around the events leading up to the US invasion of Veracruz in April 1914 were:
 

Petroleum interests around Tampico at the time were controlled by Americans, but around Veracruz, it was British, with Weetman D. Pearson, aka Lord Cowdray, representing the British consortium. Pearson  enjoyed the ferocious support Sir Lionel Cardon of the British Consulate in Mexico City, who had represented British interests in Mexico for decades.  Pearson's secretary was J.B. Body and Cardon's secretary was Thomas Hohler.   Cardon will figure big in our story.

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