A Loose Bandage Pt. 11
August 7, 1910: The White House
"The stability of Mexico and your United States are gravely threatened
by the corruption of the Diaz regime," Francisco Madero said, pleading
his case to the President of the United States. The man who should be
the President of Mexico was nearly reduced to tears of frustration.
He'd won the election, Goddamnit.
"Mr. Madero, we understand you frustration, but there is simply
nothing that the United States can do to-" a cough cut the Secretary
of State off. Bryan still flushed slightly at being interrupted by who
he thought of as his intellectual inferior.
"William, that's not exactly true. I mean, after all, this a perfect
opportunity to show the World that the United States says what it
means and means what it says," President William Randolph Hearst
looked at Madero while talking to Bryan.
"I think that this is the opportunity of lifetime. I mean, we did
state just a year ago that civil conflicts within American nations are
the sole domain of the United States – and if we don't settle this
conflict ourselves, who will? The British, or even the Germans, that's
who." Hearst would be damned if any politician let this opportunity
slip from his grasp. "No, we can't allow that to happen," Hearst gazed
thoughtfully into space before continuing.
"Now, Mr. Madero, what would you require from us?"
May 1910 – December 1910
- When Porfirio Diaz won an improbably large election against his main
opponent, the imprisoned Francisco I. Madero, in the summer of 1910,
few had any idea of the extent of the consequences of Diaz's corrupt
election. With his (nominal) defeat, Francisco Madero was released
from jail, at which point he promptly fled to Texas and, eventually,
on to Washington, where he found an eager listener in William Randolph
Hearst.
Hearst viewed the Mexican's misfortune as prime opportunity to show
the strength of the reinvigorated American military and the commitment
of the United States to follow through with the promotion of democracy
and its own policies. Perhaps, even at this point, Hearst was viewing
Mexico as a potentially juicy target for American expansionism.
While it cannot be proven by the legislators watching him from Capitol
Hill, Hearst believes that by helping Madero, he will be able to win
influence over the nation and, possibly, at a future date, turn it
into an American protectorate.
Thus it is that, at six in the morning on September 20, General
Leonard Wood leads American soldiers across the Rio Grande to "protect
and ensure the empowerment of the legal government of Mexico," headed,
of course, by Francisco Madero. What the Army meets on the Mexican
side of the Rio Grande is nothing less than a revolutionary army.
Organized by Madero's uncle, the Mexican Revolutionary Army meets its
American supporters and begin the march southward.
- The United States Navy commissions its first Dreadnought-type, all
big-gun battleship, the USS Virginia. Several more ships of that class
are still in the dockyards of the nation's great ports, being
furiously constructed by the legions of workers employed by government
contractors in the wake of the Great Panic of 1907.
- Meanwhile, the British are none too pleased by the American
invasion, whether or not it is supporting the legal government of
Francisco Madero. Fearing for their oil investments outside the city
of Tampico, the British ambassador soon meets with President Hearst,
who calmly informs the British that all matters pertaining to the
civil conflict in Mexico are in the sole domain of the United States.
However, he also promises the British that neither he nor the new
Mexican government will interfere with the British-run fields,
bringing the protests out of London to a dull roar.
- On a lighter note, as much of the news of this time seems rather
dark, the average American family can now afford an automobile. The
best-selling Cadillac "Thirty-Five," the price of which has actually
dropped since its first construction to slightly less than four
hundred dollars, making it affordable to average American worker. By
this time, nearly a million and a half "Thirty-Five's" have been sold.
Production levels continue to increase.
- The fighting of the Mexican Revolution is short but brutal. While
American and Mexican regular forces capture the city of Monterrey,
Mexican revolutionary Francisco Villa captures the northern city of
Ciudad Juarez. Mexico serves as a proving ground for the Army's new
weapons, the machine gun and the scout aircraft, both of which are
tested in limited numbers in the deserts of northern Mexico. While the
Browning Machine Gun proves dependable, the handful of aircraft which
see service prove to be unreliable in the sands of the desert. For the
time being, the Army Air Corps is scrapped.
Only hours before he has decided to tender his resignation, Porfirio
Diaz is arrested by members of his own military, headed by Victoriano
Huerta. General Huerta immediately invites the legitimate President of
the Mexican government into his capital. Upon his arrival in Mexico
City, however, newly-official President Madero is assassinated by a
zealous follower of Porfirio Diaz. Madero's dying statement, however,
requests that Huerta, who has experience leading the bureaucracy of
the Mexican government, take his place as President of the Republic.
This final statement potentially saves a number of years of political
infighting and even, some say, a full scale civil war. Within hours of
Madero's death, Victoriano Huerta is installed as the next President
of the Republic of Mexico and, even more importantly, his legitimacy
is not heavily contested by the other revolutionary leaders.
Meanwhile, ominously, the American forces remain in Mexico, nominally
to "ensure its stability," and, in fact, their numbers grow. President
Huerta, however, sees through the poorly laid American smokescreen.
