Veracruz :Who's At Fault?

3 Pages 750 Words

Veracruz: Who’s at Fault?

Looking back, the occupation of Veracruz by the United States seems like an avoidable situation that should never have happened. Why then, did our military spend more than seven months in Veracruz, most having forgotten why they were sent there in the first place. Today, using facts and logic rather than patriotic emotion, we discover that many were involved in the mishandling of the situation with Mexico. Rear Admiral Henry T. Mayo and President Woodrow Wilson were the two most responsible for the United States’ unnecessary actions. The situation was further worsened by the difficulties of communication between our forces in Mexico and Washington.
U.S. occupation of Mexico was directly forced by the absurd way Mayo handled what is known as the Tampico Incident. Warships had been stationed at Tampico both to protect the American nationals and await the arrival of the Constitutionalists trying to take the city. Tension was high when several American sailors and their commanding officer were arrested by federal troops for being in a restricted area without a pass. They were taken to the federal troop’s headquarters and quickly released with an explanation of why they had been arrested. The military governor, Morelos Zaragoza, was shocked by his troops behavior and offered a sincere apology to the Americans. The incident seemed to be over but when Mayo received word of what happened, he demanded a twenty-one gun salute to the American flag and an official apology to the entire United States. For some reason, he just wasn’t satisfied with Zaragoza’s initial apology and decided to make an example of U.S. superiority.
Mayo single-handedly turned the situation into an international crisis. It is also interesting to note that Mayo made his decision to press the situation without even notifying Washington.
Woodrow Wilson had every opportunity to diffuse the increasingly hostile situati...