Woodrow Wilson

The unofficial nature of John Lind's unofficial mission

John Lind arrived in Mexico as an unofficial ambassador to an unrecognized regime with a letter of introduction from President Woodrow Wilson, addressed “To whom it may Concern”.  Not withstanding, Victoriano Huerta extended every courtesy to Lind, while politely overlooking Lind’s principle objective of inducing him to step down.  Thus, Lind’s official mission was somewhat of a non-starter.   It is more difficult to judge the success of Lind’s unofficial mission of navigating American interests through the rough waters of the Mexican revolution.

Pancho Villa finds himself on the receiving end of weapons left by U.S. troops

The U.S. intervention at Veracruz was only partially successful in cutting off the arms supply to Victoriano Huerta’s federal army, but had a big impact in denying Huerta the revenues from the Veracruz customs house.

By mid-summer of 1914, Huerta decided there was nothing left for him except to save his skin.  After a heart-felt final address to his cronies in Congress where he declared that he had always had the best intentions for the fatherland, he fled Mexico.  The subsequent collapse of the federal army left 4 powers in Mexico: the armies of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata in the north and south respectively, Victoriano Carranza’s Constitutionalist forces commanded by Alvaro Obregon holding the west coast and the center from Guadalajara to Mexico City, and the Americans, ensconced in Veracruz.   When the Americans pulled out in November 1914, there remained 3 scorpions in the bottle.

Wilson cabinet plans the April 1914 U.S. Invasion of Veracruz

When looking at the question of who in the Wilson administration knew what, and when, we can follow the thread through the narrative of Benjamin R. Beede:

“No longer content to manipulate Mexican events covertly, either through political intrigues, arms embargoes, arms sales, or U.S. army maneuvers on the border, the Wilson administration began developing contingency plans for war with Mexico in November 1913.  At a cabinet meeting in early January 1914, the Wilson administration officially embraced a policy of armed intervention in Mexico.

Woodrow Wilson on the April 1914 U.S. Invasion of Veracruz

The American public was brought into the plans of policy makers to invade Mexico in a typically round-about way: the offended dignity of America demanded a martial response.

“I therefore come to ask your approval that I should use the armed forces of the United States in such ways, and to such an extent, as may be necessary to obtain from Gen. Huerta and his adherents the fullest recognition of the rights and dignity of the United States”       —Woodrow Wilson, April 20, 1914, message to Congress

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:

WMD's and the April 1914 U.S. Invasion of Veracruz

The US invaded Veracruz, Mexico in April 1914, and interestingly enough, one might still wonder why: nearly a century has passed, and the actual objectives of the war are still rather obscure. The cover story that ran at the time was of a valiant effort to stop weapons of mass destruction (machine guns) from falling into the hand of a dictator. 

Ironically, the reactionary US ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, a holdout from the Taft administration, had given the diplomatic green light for General Huerta to climb over the dead bodies of President Francisco Madero and Vice President Jóse Mária Pino Suarez, to assume the presidency that the Wilson administration sought to bring down.

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