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“U.S. Diplomacy and ‘The Specter of Bolshevism’ in Mexico (1924–1927)”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

James J. Horn
James J. Horn*
Affiliation:
State University College at Brockport, Brockport, New York
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Extract

Scholars have paid considerable attention to the famous goodwill mission of Dwight Whitney Morrow to Mexico in 1927, but have written almost nothing about the conditions which necessitated it. An in-depth study of Morrow’s predecessor, James Rockwell Sheffield, whose ambassadorship (1924–27) featured a deterioration in Mexican-American relations, has yet to be published. During Sheffield’s tenure the administration of Plutarco Elías Calles made the strongest attempt to that time to implement the revolutionary program of “Mexico for the Mexicans” embodied in the Constitution of 1917. Especially alarming to Americans was legislation aimed at limiting foreign land-holding and severely restricting the privileges of foreign petroleum interests. These laws precipitated a prolonged diplomatic correspondence and generated considerable ill-will. This correspondence reached a complete impasse by the spring of 1926 since neither side was willing to compromise its position. The re-emergence of the perennial church-state conflict as well as Mexican opposition to American policies in Nicaragua further convulsed relations.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , July 1975 , pp. 31 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1975

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References

1 Harry W. Laidler, “The Coming of a Labor President to Mexico,” The Messenger of Peace, L (July, 1925), 20; In agreement with Laidler is Beals, Carleton, Glass Houses (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincort Co., 1938), 338–341.Google Scholar

2 See for example: Consul William P. Blocker, Mazatlán, Sinaloa to State Department, December 11, 1926. Records of the Department of State, National Archives, 812.00/27735, hereafter cited as R.D.S. followed by file numbers; Consul Herman C. Vogenitz, Progresso, Yucatán to State Department, July 18, 1927, R.D.S., 812.00/28557.

3 Sheffield to Kellogg, October 21, 1925, R.D.S., 812.00B/98.

4 Ibid., December 18,1926, 812.00B/138.

5 See SisterRice, M. Elizabeth Anne, The Diplomatic Relations Between the United States and Mexico As Affected By the Struggle for Religious Liberty in Mexico, 1925–1929. (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1959)Google Scholar; Dulles, John W. F., Yesterday in Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1961), 309–312.Google Scholar

6 New York Evening Post, August 3,1926.

7 Washington Post, August 4, 1926.

8 New York Times, February 11, 19, March 5, 8, 17, August 14, 1926; Detroit Times, August 23, 1926.

9 New York Times, November 24, 1926.

10 McCullagh, Francis, Red Mexico, A Reign of Terror in America (New York and London: Brentano’s Ltd., 1928).Google Scholar

11 Ibid., 83, 100, 294, 301, 303, 331, passim.

12 Walsh, William, ‘The Little Lenin of Mexico,” The Commonweal, I (May 6, 1925), 709–711 Google Scholar; see also “Is Mexico Turning Bolshevik?” Catholic World, CXXIII (June, 1926), 366.

13 Quoted in “Supreme Secretary’s Report,” Columbia, VII (September, 1927), 35.

14 Ibid., see for example “Mexico, Bolshevism the Menace,” “Red Mexico—The Facts,” “Mexico?” all (New Haven: Knights of Columbus, Supreme Council, 1926).

15 New York Times, August 7, 1926.

16 Pastoral Letter of the Catholic Episcopate of the United States on the Religious Situation in Mexico (n.p.: Committee of the American Episcopate, 1926).

17 Sheffield to Kellogg, June 29, 1926, R.D.S. 812.00B/122.

18 Ibid.

19 See Sheffield to C. P. Anderson, April 7, 1926, James Rockwell Sheffield Papers, Yale University Library, hereafter cited as Sheffield MSS; Sheffield to Kellogg, May 4, 1926, R.D.S. 711.12/753½.

20 Sheffield to C. P. Anderson, May 14, 1926; Sheffield to Wadsworth, June 3, 1926, Sheffield, MSS.

21 Sheffield to Kellogg, January 31, 1927, R.D.S. 711.12/951.

22 Ibid., February 10, 1927, 812.00B/159; Olds to Sheffield, March 26, 1927, 812.00B/159; Sheffield to Kellogg, April 7, 1972, 812.00B/173.

23 Consul Harry L. Walsh, Nuevo Laredo to Kellogg, June 17, 1927; Olds to Walsh, June 25,1927, R.D.S. 812.00B/187.

24 Jack Starr-Hunt, “Mexico Evades Red Question,” Los Angeles Times, April 4, 1927, in R.D.S. 812.00B/173.

25 Department of State, Division of Mexican Affairs, “Radical and Socialistic Tendencies in Mexico,” December 14, 1926, R.D.S. 812.00B/134.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

29 Robert F. Kelley to Olds, December 6, 1926, R.D.S. 812.00B/195.

30 Lt. Col. Edward Davis, “Report from the Military Attaché at Mexico City, Subversive Activities (Mexico),” April 27, 1926, R.D.S. 812.00B/195.

31 The secondary literature on this Nicaraguan episode is extensive. See for example Cox, Isaac J., Nicaragua and the United States, 1909–1927 (Boston: World Peace Foundation, 1972), 773–892 Google Scholar; Denny, Harold N., Dollars For Bullets (New York: The Dial Press, 1929), 259, 307 Google Scholar; Kamman, William A., “A Search for Stability: United States Diplomacy toward Nicaragua, 1925–1933,” (Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1962).Google Scholar

32 Anderson to Sheffield, May 26,1926, Sheffield MSS.

33 Sheffield to Anderson, June 1,1926, Sheffield MSS.

34 Adolfo Díaz to Calvin Coolidge, text of letter in Coolidge message to Congress, January 10, 1927, New York Times, January 11, 1927.

35 See for example, Sheffield to Anderson, September 3, 1926; Anderson to Sheffield, September 10, 1926, Chandler P. Anderson Papers, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., hereafter cited as Anderson MSS.

36 Anderson Diary, October 6,1926, Anderson MSS.

37 Ibid., October 18, 19, 1926; Washington Post, October 19, 1926.

38 Anderson Diary, November 14, 1926, Anderson MSS.

39 Unsigned “Confidential Memorandum,” 1926, Arthur Bliss Lane Papers, Yale University Library, 4–5.

40 Ibid.

41 According to Wilson, “Olds wanted the American people somehow to be brought to the realization that the firmness of the contemplated action was justified, that there was no other means of dealing with the highly radical, perhaps communistic, elements in Mexican Government.” Wilson, Hugh R., Diplomat Between Wars (New York and Toronto: Longmans, Green and Co., 1941), 179.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., 179–181.

43 New York Herald Tribune, November 18, 1926.

44 Washington Post, November 26, 1926.

45 New York Times, Washington Post, December 14, 1926; Congressional Record, 69 Cong., 2 sess. LXIII, Part I, 415. Kellogg’s denial of the episode is in Kellogg to House Committee on Foreign Affairs, January 3, 1927, R.D.S. 812.00B/136.

46 Calles quoted in New York Times, December 7, 1926.

47 Sáenz quoted in New York Herald Tribune, November 19, 1926; Obregón in El Universal, November 19, 1926; see also reports on Mexican response in New York Herald Tribune, November 20, 21, 1926; Excelsior, November 18–25, 1926; El Universal, November 19–26, 1926.

48 Literary Digest, XCI (December 25, 1926), 13–14.

49 Text of Coolidge address in New York Times, January 1, 1927.

50 Ibid., January 3, 1927.

51 Congressional Record, 69 Cong., 2 sess., LXVIII, Part 2, 1324–1326; New York Times, January 11, 1927.

52 Text of statement and reports in New York Times, January 13, 1927; Circular to Diplomatic Missions in Latin America, January 27, 1927, R.D.S. 812.00B/16a.

53 Excelsior, January 15, 1927.

54 Baltimore Sun, January 14, 1927.

55 The Nation, CXXIV (January 26, 1927), 80.

56 New York Herald Tribune, December 7, 1926.

57 For secondary explanation of these events see sources in footnote 31, supra.

58 Ethan Ellis, L., Frank B. Kellogg and American Foreign Relations, 1925–1929 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1961), 10, 11, 24, 38, 248n.Google Scholar

59 Ibid., 234.

60 See Schmidt, Karl M., Communism in Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1965)Google Scholar, preface, v. Schmidt does not mention these developments of the Coolidge administration, but he does put Mexican communism in its proper perspective.