(This article was originally written in 2001)
September 11 was not the first time foreign terrorists attacked Americans on U.S. soil and inflicted significant casualties.
It happened when Mexican revolutionary leader and bandit Francisco "Pancho" Villa invaded the United States in 1916. Americans living along the Rio Grande were terrified. During the years of the Villa turmoil, about four hundred American civilians were killed on both sides of the border and property losses totaled nearly $200 million. In the American mind, Pancho Villa was the Osama bin Laden of his day. For them, he was an evil doer, in the pay of malevolent foreign interests, who had an unfathomable ability to stir up hatred against the United States. The parallels between Villa and bin Laden are striking enough to be instructive.
When Venustiano Carranza, after a period of violent struggle, took over the Mexican presidency in 1914, his ablest lieutenant Pancho Villa launched an armed revolt. The administration of Woodrow Wilson decided to back Villa, believing him to be more amenable to American interests than Carranza. During his career as a revolutionary leader, Villa attracted a great deal of favourable attention from Hollywood filmmakers and U.S. newspaper photographers who followed him around northern Mexico, recording his exploits for an American audience. To stay fit, Villa, who avoided alcohol, was an avid runner and swimmer. Famous for dancing all night with female camp followers, he was reputed to have been officially married twenty-six times.
But despite being a U.S. protégé (as bin Laden later would be), Villa was defeated on the field of battle by the forces of Carranza.
The U.S. then recognized Carranza as president and Villa was reduced to the status of a bandit, but a bandit with a large following among the land hungry poor peasants of Mexico. On one notorious occasion, he halted a train at Santa Ysabel, Mexico, took seventeen Texas mining engineers from the train and had them executed in cold blood. In 1916, he launched a series of raids on U.S. border towns. The climax came when Villa and five hundred of his troops attacked the small town of Columbus, New Mexico. Villa told his men that he wanted to attack the town because the Carranza government was selling Mexico to the Americans. Well aware of the frequent American military interventions in Mexico, as well as the seizure of much of their country by the U.S. in the war of 1846-48, his men were not hard to convince. What most infuriated Villa’s troops was the news that two days earlier twenty Mexicans had been arrested by the police in El Paso, Texas. Under arrest the Mexicans were soaked with kerosene, supposedly to delouse them. Either by accident or by design, someone then set fire to the Mexicans, all twenty of whom were burned alive.
At 4.45 a.m. Villa’s troops stormed the town and unleashed a volley of lead at the army barracks, catching the six hundred soldiers by surprise. The marauders fired at houses and shot anyone who came out on the street. When they finally got organized, the U.S. soldiers rode after the fleeing Villa forces killing about one hundred of them. Twenty-four Americans died in the raid. The town of Columbus was burned to the ground.
There is evidence that Villa may have been financed by a German spy who maintained a bank account in St. Louis. The U.S. Department of Justice, tracking down the financial support for this early twentieth century terrorist, discovered that $340,000 had been deposited in the St. Louis bank from a New York bank account in the name of the German government. Historians have concluded that the real purpose of Villa’s assault on Columbus, New Mexico was to provoke the Americans into invading Mexico. This he hoped would create a backlash against the United States among Mexicans and would help him to overthrow the Carranza government in Mexico City.
Villa’s calculation, perhaps not unlike bin Laden’s today, proved at least partly correct. The day after the attack on Columbus, President Woodrow Wilson announced that he would send General John J. Pershing----later to lead U.S. forces on the western front in the First World War---and 6000 men to invade Mexico to get Pancho Villa. Pershing and his men crossed the border and within two weeks they had pushed three hundred and fifty miles into the mountains of Chihuahua. The Pershing expedition featured some of the newest assets in the American arsenal, including trucks, armoured cars, dirigible balloons and airplanes. The U.S. continued to mobilize forces on the border, until it had over one hundred thousand men engaged in operations to counter Villa. One of those involved was a thirty year old Lieutenant, named George S. Patton, to become famous for his brilliant tactics as a general in the Second World War.
For nearly a year, Pershing’s forces chased Villa and his small band of men through the deserts and mountains of northern Mexico, enduring both scorching heat and numbing cold. For all their trouble though, they caught few glimpses of Villa’s men and they never came close to capturing the stealthy bandit himself. Eventually the Wilson administration pulled most of its troops out of Mexico to avoid a war in the south just when it was about to enter the First World War against Germany. This left Villa free to pose as an invincible hero in the struggle against the United States. His popularity soared among the Mexican people, many of whom still revere him today. Villa, who surrendered his troops to a rival Mexican leader in 1920, was ambushed and killed in Parral, Mexico in 1923. Officials in the Mexican government likely ordered his murder.
Pancho Villa very nearly succeeded in suckering the United States into a major war with Mexico, something Woodrow Wilson decided, in the end, would have been the wrong war, in the wrong place, against the wrong enemy. Does that remind anyone of Osama bin Laden?
September 11 was not the first time foreign terrorists attacked Americans on U.S. soil and inflicted significant casualties.
It happened when Mexican revolutionary leader and bandit Francisco "Pancho" Villa invaded the United States in 1916. Americans living along the Rio Grande were terrified. During the years of the Villa turmoil, about four hundred American civilians were killed on both sides of the border and property losses totaled nearly $200 million. In the American mind, Pancho Villa was the Osama bin Laden of his day. For them, he was an evil doer, in the pay of malevolent foreign interests, who had an unfathomable ability to stir up hatred against the United States. The parallels between Villa and bin Laden are striking enough to be instructive.
When Venustiano Carranza, after a period of violent struggle, took over the Mexican presidency in 1914, his ablest lieutenant Pancho Villa launched an armed revolt. The administration of Woodrow Wilson decided to back Villa, believing him to be more amenable to American interests than Carranza. During his career as a revolutionary leader, Villa attracted a great deal of favourable attention from Hollywood filmmakers and U.S. newspaper photographers who followed him around northern Mexico, recording his exploits for an American audience. To stay fit, Villa, who avoided alcohol, was an avid runner and swimmer. Famous for dancing all night with female camp followers, he was reputed to have been officially married twenty-six times.
But despite being a U.S. protégé (as bin Laden later would be), Villa was defeated on the field of battle by the forces of Carranza.
The U.S. then recognized Carranza as president and Villa was reduced to the status of a bandit, but a bandit with a large following among the land hungry poor peasants of Mexico. On one notorious occasion, he halted a train at Santa Ysabel, Mexico, took seventeen Texas mining engineers from the train and had them executed in cold blood. In 1916, he launched a series of raids on U.S. border towns. The climax came when Villa and five hundred of his troops attacked the small town of Columbus, New Mexico. Villa told his men that he wanted to attack the town because the Carranza government was selling Mexico to the Americans. Well aware of the frequent American military interventions in Mexico, as well as the seizure of much of their country by the U.S. in the war of 1846-48, his men were not hard to convince. What most infuriated Villa’s troops was the news that two days earlier twenty Mexicans had been arrested by the police in El Paso, Texas. Under arrest the Mexicans were soaked with kerosene, supposedly to delouse them. Either by accident or by design, someone then set fire to the Mexicans, all twenty of whom were burned alive.
At 4.45 a.m. Villa’s troops stormed the town and unleashed a volley of lead at the army barracks, catching the six hundred soldiers by surprise. The marauders fired at houses and shot anyone who came out on the street. When they finally got organized, the U.S. soldiers rode after the fleeing Villa forces killing about one hundred of them. Twenty-four Americans died in the raid. The town of Columbus was burned to the ground.
There is evidence that Villa may have been financed by a German spy who maintained a bank account in St. Louis. The U.S. Department of Justice, tracking down the financial support for this early twentieth century terrorist, discovered that $340,000 had been deposited in the St. Louis bank from a New York bank account in the name of the German government. Historians have concluded that the real purpose of Villa’s assault on Columbus, New Mexico was to provoke the Americans into invading Mexico. This he hoped would create a backlash against the United States among Mexicans and would help him to overthrow the Carranza government in Mexico City.
Villa’s calculation, perhaps not unlike bin Laden’s today, proved at least partly correct. The day after the attack on Columbus, President Woodrow Wilson announced that he would send General John J. Pershing----later to lead U.S. forces on the western front in the First World War---and 6000 men to invade Mexico to get Pancho Villa. Pershing and his men crossed the border and within two weeks they had pushed three hundred and fifty miles into the mountains of Chihuahua. The Pershing expedition featured some of the newest assets in the American arsenal, including trucks, armoured cars, dirigible balloons and airplanes. The U.S. continued to mobilize forces on the border, until it had over one hundred thousand men engaged in operations to counter Villa. One of those involved was a thirty year old Lieutenant, named George S. Patton, to become famous for his brilliant tactics as a general in the Second World War.
For nearly a year, Pershing’s forces chased Villa and his small band of men through the deserts and mountains of northern Mexico, enduring both scorching heat and numbing cold. For all their trouble though, they caught few glimpses of Villa’s men and they never came close to capturing the stealthy bandit himself. Eventually the Wilson administration pulled most of its troops out of Mexico to avoid a war in the south just when it was about to enter the First World War against Germany. This left Villa free to pose as an invincible hero in the struggle against the United States. His popularity soared among the Mexican people, many of whom still revere him today. Villa, who surrendered his troops to a rival Mexican leader in 1920, was ambushed and killed in Parral, Mexico in 1923. Officials in the Mexican government likely ordered his murder.
Pancho Villa very nearly succeeded in suckering the United States into a major war with Mexico, something Woodrow Wilson decided, in the end, would have been the wrong war, in the wrong place, against the wrong enemy. Does that remind anyone of Osama bin Laden?
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