Blaming America First - for the Mexican War

By William R. Hawkins
FrontPageMagazine.com

Left-wing academics will use the auspices of the History Channel to denounce the United States as a “bully” launching a “war of conquest” – in the Mexican War. The academics seem to liken the embattled Texicans (who “stole” Aztlan) to modern illegal immigrants and portray the modern antiwar movement as the successors of Abraham Lincoln.

On September 29, the History Channel premiered a two-hour documentary on the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, which will air again on Friday, October 13. The well-regarded cable channel promoted the program by tying it to current issues, stating, “At a time when immigration reform continues to be one of the most heated topics in political and business circles, this 2-hour special reexamines the controversial war that resulted in the United States taking control of what was nearly half of Mexico's territory.”

The show featured “interviews with both Mexican and American historians to ensure accuracy from both nations' points of view” but was not hosted by a scholar. Instead, boxer Oscar de la Hoya opened the presentation – and he wasn’t there just for star power. He talked about his dual citizenship, having been born in the United States from Mexican parents. And while he was proud to have won an Olympic Gold Medal for the USA, he considered his victory had been won for both countries. Though he did not add much to the narrative, when he did, La Hoya spoke from the Mexican perspective.

Five historians comment throughout the show. The two Mexican professors, Jesus Velasco Marquez and Joselina Zoralda Vasquez, defend Mexico’s honor at every turn. The three American scholars, Associate Professor Brian Delay of the University of Colorado, Assoc. Prof. Sam W. Haynes of the Univ. of Texas-Arlington, and author Bruce Winders, were generally critical of U.S. policy. According to the show’s producer, Jim Lindsay, Haynes’ brief book James Polk and the Expansionist Impulse was the principle source for the documentary. Lindsey is also quoted as saying:

There are parallels between the war that’s going on today and the war in Mexico. There was certainly in the 1840s a rush to war, and afterwards a great deal of second-guessing on the part of Congress as to whether or not this was the right policy for the United States.

Not the right policy? Victory in the Mexican War gained for the United States all of Texas, California, and everything in between, comprising most of what is now New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. Next to the War of Independence and the Union victory in the Civil War, the Mexican War was the most important conflict endowing the United States with, as Prof. Delay noted, “the wealth and security we enjoy today.” Yet, it is not much remembered because, according to Delay, “we want to believe we are a virtuous people who would not fight a war in this way” even though “we are happy with the results.”


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