LostAmerican
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- Feb 20, 2011
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Chapter 4
President Hayes offered recognition to the Diaz government in the [FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]spring of 1878. However, the Mexican President still refused to cooperate [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]53 [/FONT]
[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]in policing the border until Hays expunged his order of hot pursuit. With negotiations at an impasse, Mackenzie and Shafter brought the situation to a head in June 1878 when they crossed the border and openly confronted the Mexican Army. With more than 1,000 men, the two commanders challenged the Mexican Army to stop their encroachment on Mexican soil. While its army tried twice to block the Americans, the Mexicans had [/FONT][/FONT]no stomach for a fight and fled before contact could be made. Having [FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]embarrassed the Mexicans, the US Army returned to its side of the river.[/FONT][/FONT]53
Once again, the Mexicans were outraged. Diaz was mortified and discomfited by the continual American border crossings. Fearing further damage to his political standing, Diaz was forced to act. The Mexican [FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]President sent one of his best generals to the border and ordered his army to take aggressive action against raiders and criminal elements in Mexico. By the close of 1878, raids from Mexico into the United States had been greatly reduced. Undoubtedly, the US Army’s cross-border raids into Mexico and increased enforcement by the Mexican Army contributed greatly to the reduction in attacks. However, it was the Army’s continual [/FONT][/FONT]forays into Mexico that caused Diaz to finally act. Utley points out that [FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]many US Army commanders were convinced that the Mexican Army’s aggressive response to policing its side of the border was "motivated largely by humiliation at the repeated border crossings by U.S. troops."[/FONT][/FONT]54
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]With the Mexican Government now fully committed to policing its side of the border, President Hays repealed his order of hot pursuit in early [/FONT][/FONT]1880. Under a new treaty with Diaz, both countries would have limited [FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]correlative rights to conduct hot pursuits across the border. By the summer of 1880, relations between the United States and Mexico had greatly improved. As an example, the US Army and the Mexican Army worked together in a limited fashion to hunt down Apaches under Victorio and Geronimo in the 1880s. By the end of the 1880s, the US Army and the Mexican Army, as Leiker earlier suggested, had indeed transformed the frontier into a border[/FONT]
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Summary
During this period, US Army actions along the Mexican border were instrumental in driving the French out of Mexico, eliminating cross-border Indian raids, and forcing the Mexican Government to take responsibility for policing its side of the border. Sheridan’s bold movements with the large forces at his disposal at the end of the Civil War caused the French Army to evacuate northern Mexico and prompted Napoleon III to accelerate his timetable for a complete withdrawal. Sheridan’s actions also helped,
albeit briefly, to reestablished a more harmonious relationship between the United States and Mexico.
When the greatly reduced peacetime Army returned to guarding the Mexican border in the mid-1860s, it was confronted with the same problems the US Army had experienced in the 1850s. Once again, infantry soldiers in fixed defensive positions could not stop raiders from crossing the border. Mounted patrols also proved of limited value due to the limited quantity of horse soldiers and the expansive nature of the terrain.
By the 1870s, the US Army’s senior leaders were convinced that they could not stop raiders from crossing the border using only static defense and mounted patrols. One alternative to disrupting the raids was to conduct preemptive strikes on the raiders’ Mexican sanctuaries. The other option was to convince the Mexican Government to police its side of the border. In the end, it was the cross-border offensive actions of Mackenzie and Shafter that greatly curtailed the Indian raids, thereby forcing Diaz and the Mexican Army to maintain order on their side of the border.
Excerpts from "The US Army on the Mexican Border: A Historical Perspective"
http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/download/csipubs/Matthews_op22.pdf
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Just one example of strategic use of US Armed Forces to solve problems on the US Mexico border that go beyond the range of law enforcement. The whole booklet is full of examples like this.
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