This is one of the better threads on the forum so far. I didn't realize there was already a timeline on this.
One that that has struck me about Wilson's intervention in Mexico, is that changing it might be the POD to get the US involved in the war in Europe. The intervention not only got the US too deeply embroiled with the Mexican tar baby to contemplate intervening in Europe as well, but it also demonstrated serious problems with the US army, that Newton Baker convinced Wilson had to be fixed before the US could fight a modern war.
But make a few small changes, maybe have Wilson pursue less ambitious objectives, and now the US is free to enter the European war in 1917. This also may butterfly away Wilson's defeat to Hughes in 1916. And the German diplomatic contacts with Carranza is not taken by US policy makers as a warning to ratchet down the tensions with Germany, but instead is an additional goad for the US to declare war on Germany!
One that that has struck me about Wilson's intervention in Mexico, is that changing it might be the POD to get the US involved in the war in Europe. The intervention not only got the US too deeply embroiled with the Mexican tar baby to contemplate intervening in Europe as well, but it also demonstrated serious problems with the US army, that Newton Baker convinced Wilson had to be fixed before the US could fight a modern war.
But make a few small changes, maybe have Wilson pursue less ambitious objectives, and now the US is free to enter the European war in 1917. This also may butterfly away Wilson's defeat to Hughes in 1916. And the German diplomatic contacts with Carranza is not taken by US policy makers as a warning to ratchet down the tensions with Germany, but instead is an additional goad for the US to declare war on Germany!