Why is a hypothetical President Roosevelt intervention in Mexico such a popular theme?

Because in 1915/16 he was fulminating just as loudly against Mexico as against Germany. And in all likelihood a DoW against the former would have been easier to obtain than against the latter.
 
There WAS an intervention against Mexico before WWI, during which the US Army, seeking to capture Pancho Villa, effectively occupied the entire northern section of America's southern neighbor.
 

raharris1973

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...but would the situation that TR was fulminating about in the first place even have arisen if Woodrow Wilson had never been President and if instead TR had been President since 1913, or was in his *fourth* term with Taft never occupying the WH ?
 
There WAS an intervention against Mexico before WWI, during which the US Army, seeking to capture Pancho Villa, effectively occupied the entire northern section of America's southern neighbor.
Yes, and don't forget the Veracruz Expedition of 1914, too. The bloody occupation of a neighboring country's chief commercial port would be enough to start most wars.
 
...but would the situation that TR was fulminating about in the first place even have arisen if Woodrow Wilson had never been President and if instead TR had been President since 1913, or was in his *fourth* term with Taft never occupying the WH ?
Taft's ambassador to Mexico had a lot to do with setting up the situation, it's true (from trying to prop up Diaz's government down to essentially stage-managing Huerta's coup). That said, at least the first phase of the Mexican Revolution seems likely to happen; Diaz was vulnerable, and there was enough discontent and factionalism to start it off. I suppose a Huerta-less timeline might see Madero or someone else manage to stabilize things, but I'm dubious; there were plenty of other fires to put out.
 

raharris1973

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I thought foreign investors from Europe and America were all happy with Huerta, and it was only Wilson's idiosyncratic and idealistic pining for the lost Madero that caused him to do things like get into Veracruz. I would think a more realistic TR would just come to an understanding with Huerta as he imposes order and even would supply Huerta arms, thus not forcing him to turn to Germany. With the US supporting Huerta, in the short-term you just get Porfiriato part II., and certainly no activity by Mexican government forces that can be construed as justifying American annexation of territory. If TR wants order and quiet south of the border, he will know forcing territorial concessions will not help any Mexico City regime do that.
 

raharris1973

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My reading of the chaotic situation that pulled Wilson into Mexico as less a product of Taft's Ambassador Lane's approach but a consequence of Wilson sharply and angrily sifting away from Lane's policy. Most of my knowledge of the crisis initially came from Barbara Tuchman's "The Zimerman Telegram".
 
Because Roosevelt really, really wanted the US to be in a war, and because the "Macho man" meme he's become in recent times. The odd thing is, aside from the Mexican-German/American war "scare" in 1903 he was pretty quiet about war in his presidency. IIRC he was only wishing for one when someone else was in office.
 
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