Sold – President Woodrow Wilson Orders American Troops From Mexico

Mexico had been in turmoil since 1911 when dictator Porfirio D’az was overthrown. He had governed his country on and off for 30 years and advanced the interests of foreign investors, many of whom were Americans. Mexican oil, coffee, rubber, minerals and railroads were owned overwhelmingly by non-Mexicans. A reform regime was instituted under a new president, Francisco Madero, who attempted to implement Mexican control of resources and utilities. Many American investors lost their holdings and complained bitterly to the Taft administration.

In February 1913, with possible American complicity, Gen. Victoriano Huerta plotted the arrest and murder of Madero, and then seized office. The incoming President Woodrow Wilson was offended by these undemocratic activities and refused to offer diplomatic recognition to the new Huerta regime. In fact, in Wilson’s first foray into foreign policy, he launched an initiative to engineer the installation of a legitimate Mexican government and stage popular elections. Huerta refused to cooperate and came under increasing pressure from an opposition movement led by Venustiano Carranza and his Constitutionalists. Wilson took no further action at the time and followed what he called a policy of “watchful waiting” while chaos reigned in a divided Mexico.

Then, on April 20, 1914, with the situation deterioriating and no doubt tiring of "watchful waiting," Wilson sought Congressional approval for armed intervention in Mexico. Congress would respond affirmatively two days later. Meanwhile Wilson received word that a German ship was approaching the Mexican port city of Vera Cruz laden with a huge arms shipment for the Huerta regime, so on April 21, before Congress had the opportunity to approve his request for authority to intervene, he ordered the immediate bombardment and occupation of Vera Cruz.

Fighting was fierce; more than 300 Mexicans and about 90 Americans were killed. This military action served to unify the previously divided Mexicans. Carranza offered support to his bitter rival Huerta, then both demanded the immediate removal of American forces. The Mexican government also severed diplomatic relations with the United States. The Vera Cruz incident threatened to boil over into a new Mexican War – a conflict desired by neither country. Argentina, Brazil and Chile offered to mediate. A plan was finalized in late June, which provided that General Huerta was to surrender the reins of his government to a new regime and the U.S. would receive no indemnity for its losses in the recent chaotic events. Huerta retired from office in July and later left the country; Wilson found it easier to work with Carranza.

Then war broke out in Europe in August and days later Wilson’s wife died. Plunged into personal depression, he faced the overwhelming tasks of establishing American neutrality and attempting to serve as a mediator to try and end the Great War. Deciding to concentrate on issues in Europe and defuse the Mexican crisis, he determined to extend diplomatic recognition to the Carranza regime, withdraw American forces from Vera Cruz, and bring to an end the U.S. occupation of Mexican territory. Wilson had been a noted author before becoming president, and would still on occasion as president do his own writing and typing, the words and thoughts going right from his mind to the paper.

As William Seale, former White House historian for the National Park Service states, “Wilson had a study on the second floor, a roomy office that had been the cabinet room for years after the Civil War. Here he typed many of his own letters and wrote his own speeches.” We can determine which papers he typed himself because, for them, he used a smaller size stationery than regular White House letterhead, and his personal typewriter had a smaller size typeface than standard White House correspondence typed by secretaries.

That is how we know that he himself sat down on November 13, 1914, probably at night, and drafted his own announcement of the termination of his first foreign policy initiative. One draft was sent to the Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, to be issued to the press, and another was sent to the Secretary of War, Lindley M. Garrison, who would have to order the military action it required.

Woodrow Wilson autograph on a Typed Letter Signed, The White House, 13 November 1914, to Secretary of War Garrison, whom he addresses as “Dear Garrison, Here is the statement which Mr. Bryan is giving out to the press tonight.” Attached to this brief letter is the complete draft press release, again typed by Wilson himself. “Both General Carranza and the Convention at Aguascalientes having given the assurances and guarantees we requested, it is the purpose of the Administration to withdraw the troops of the United States from Vera Cruz on Monday, the twenty-third of November. All the persons there for whose personal safety this Government had made itself responsible have now left the city. The priests and nuns who had taken refuge there and for whose safety fears were entertained are on their way to this country.”

The troops were indeed withdrawn as announced here and the Mexican crisis was, for the moment, ended. The penned interlineation is in Wilson’s hand. Woodrow Wilson is probably the most influential American president as regards foreign policy in the country’s history, to the extent that “Wilsonian” has became a term to describe policies that emphasize internationalism and moralism and are dedicated to the self-determination of peoples and extention of democracy. This is a crucial foreign policy document from Wilson’s first major foray into foreign policy, crafted directly by him.