No study is possible on the battlefield.
(Ferdinand Foch)
With the Treaty of Willemstad signed on Sunday, September 3rd, 1933, Colonel Erich von Manstein had taken off uniform and put on civilian attire, but his tasks had hardly changed. He and his team of experts still were there to study the lessons that could be learned from the war in Mexico. While the fighting volunteers either prepared for repatriation or went on leave in Mexico, the experts carried on with their evaluations.
Apart from von Manstein, who was caring for the ground fighting lessons to be learned, there were: Doktor med. Rita Kranich, student of the famous psychoanalyst Helene Deutsch, looking at psychological aspects; Doktor phil. h.c. Hermann Wenzel, a leading executive of the Stahlverein, investigating economic matters; Professor Richard Thoma, lecturer at the Bonn University, examining questions of international law; Oberst Hellmuth Felmy from the Luftwaffe, analysing air combat and air transport aspects; Fregattenkapitän Hans Bütow looking for naval lessons to be learned; and finally there was Frau Lisa Müller, an Abwehr spook, exploring secrets about which the other members of the group were not supposed to know anything.
Orchestrating such a heterogeneous team was quite a challenge – even for a highly qualified and talented general staff officer like von Manstein. On the other hand, each specialist could be trusted to be competent in his field of research; thus, von Manstein’s task rather was to identify areas where overarching aspects were touched than to provide detailed guidance for each researcher. That left him ample time to do his own work.
Accompanied by his interpreter, Dolores del Rio, von Manstein just had arrived back from a two-day visit to General Plutarco Elías Calles’ headquarters at Oaxaca de Juárez, when Rita Kranich asked for an interview.
After saying good bye to Ms del Rio, who had the rest of the day off, von Manstein went over to Kranich’s office.
“Well?” he asked the young scientist.
“I thought this might interest you. – You know I’ve been investigating how the Mexicans tried – not quite without success – to corrupt the US military.”
“Yes, that has already been discussed in our weekly meeting last Friday. – So, what’s new?”
“Oh, I had a thorough look at the Mexican side of this manoeuvre in the last few days, and the result is that this corrupting strategy has been pure suicide. – While a good number of Amis may have been corrupted, made drug addicts and criminals, Mexican society will have to pay a very high price for this. – If I’ve got my figures right, there is a twelvefold increase in addiction to opium derivates, a twentyfold increase in alcoholism, and venereal diseases have increased by a factor of fifteen – all in comparison to pre-war figures.”
“Can you put this in absolute numbers? Just to get an idea about which categories you’re talking.”
“Mh, the pre-war the population of Ciudad de México numbered 1.23 million. Of these, about 2,600 were known as opium derivate addicted. Today, there are more than 31,000 registered, with a dark figure possibly much higher…”
“You mean your figures refer to the capital – not to the whole country?”
“No reliable figures for the whole country are available, neither pre- nor post-war. I’m glad to have received these data for Ciudad de México, and I believe that the figures for areas occupied by the Amis will be of the same magnitude.”
“Okay, I see. – Please go on.”
“Alcoholism has risen from 10,000 known addicts to 200,000, again with a much higher dark figure probable. Women are providing about one third of the total as many of the casual prostitutes not used to the business obviously became addicted. – Venereal diseases went up from 3,800 to 57,000 cases.”
“Who provided these figures?”
“The Mexican Red Cross; they’re based on a 1929 anonymous survey of doctor’s surgeries and figures gathered over the last few weeks. – Again, there may be a high dark figure concerning post-war figures, making the problems even worse.”
“How do these numbers compare to German figures?”
“We have approximately 2 opium derivate addicts per mille; Ciudad de México has 2.4 percent – that’s twelvefold as much, just corresponding with the rise that this corrupting strategy has produced. – For alcoholism, our basic figure is higher as the Mexican one – and we probably also have a very high dark figure. We are at 3.3 percent; they were at less than one percent – and have risen to 16 percent, which is enormous. – As I already said, it’s very probable that those states, which saw a protracted US presence – Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, San Luis Potosi – have similar increases.”
“Are there any figures about civilian casualties?”
“Not yet. – The situation is very complicated, because many people moved away or were ousted. – And despite US occupation and extensive damage from combat and bombing raids the population of Ciudad de México today is as high as before the war. – They have – so far – found 8,500 corpses when digging in the ruins, but excavations are ongoing.”