The beginning of the end
23 February 2013
This photo, taken sometime in February 1913, was the last one ever taken of Franciso I. Madero, who was assassinated on the night of 22 February 1913 outside Lucumberri Prison by Huerta’s henchmen. Huerta, of course, joined the coup against the democratically elected Madero (and double-crossed the putative leaders, Felix Diáz and Bernardo Reyes) formented in large part by U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson.
Mexico would lose an estimated million people in the next ten years… though war, pestilence, famine and exile… as a result.
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Many thanks for this historical detail. I’ve added it to a Wikipedia page titled Covert United States Foreign Regime Change Actions. Perhaps you have some quotes from your book which would enhance the page. (Some day I must read it.) ~eric.
Here’s the link. (It was taken down briefly, as a reference wasn’t accepted; now corrected.):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change_actions#Mexico
Trolls don’t like history to be shared. The entry is gone again. (Apparently the footnotes and references I shared are not sufficiently credible.) Here’s what it said: During the Ten Tragic Days US Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson serving under President Taft, and thereafter under President Woodrow Wilson (no relation) helped General Victoriano Huerta contrive the removal of President Francisco I. Madero, who had been elected in one of Mexico’s cleanest elections, and who was subsequently executed with the help of General Huerta. President Wilson later disapproved of Ambassador Wilson’s judgement and meddling, and had him removed from his post.[citation needed]
I don’t know if it was trolls so much as that particular entry dealt with post WWII activity by the CIA and state policy. Henry Lane Wilson was something of a rogue ambassador. President Taft wanted him replaced, but not being re-elected had left it to the Woodrow Wilson, who would be taking office the next month (the Presidential term began in March back then). The Madero Administration had demanded Henry Wilson’s recall in early February (I don’t have my notes here), so it is hard to say this was so much State Department policy as it was just Hnery Lane Wilson acting on his own.
Rich, the entry starts with US troops showing up in Russia in 1918, shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution, so it’s not post WW2. Clearly somebody doesn’t want Uncle Sam’s participation articulated. And even if Ambassador Lane is charged with “acting on his own” — it’s inescapable that he was the official representative of USA.