I have a few questions I need answers to.
First, the fluffly question. Anyone ever heard of Franky Perez? The reason I ask is I haven't heard of him, ever, yet I got an e-mail addressed to me prompting me to enter a contest see him live in Las Vegas and to meet him. I can tell it is not spam because listeneremail.net & 3592.com are the same. Cumulus, the company that sent the e-mail in the first place, is legitimate, too. I bet they sent it to me from something I signed up with with Z102 ages ago. Z102 is a Cumulus radio station.
Now to the think tank questions. Why did the US invade Mexico in 1914? And what prompted the US to fight Germany in War World I? I ask these questions because what I learned on my own and what I was taught in high school are not mentioned at all in my college text book. My professor told us the first day the school she did not choose the book, the school did. I'm not thrilled if some history is being left out of a college text book. When it comes to evaluation time for the course, I will use the course evaluation to remark about this book and that it doesn't seem to be a true reflection on history. Don't mention something if you can't explain all of it. (Like why American forces are in Mexico in 1914.)
Posted by Shawn at October 19, 2003 6:46 PM in General.
We got involved in WWI after the Germans sunk the Lusitania due to the fact that Americans were on board and we'd warned them not to do that. Both my husband and I learned that.
Don says that he believes we invaded Mexico in 1914 to go after Pancho Villa. I recall the name, but forget the details. That's been a llooonnnggg time ago (8 years).
I have no idea who Franky Perez is...neither does Don.
Posted by: Chewie at October 19, 2003 9:19 PMI read the Pancho Villa story just last month. I also remember in school that the Germans were going to ask the Mexicans to invade the US. In turn, the Germans would help the Mexicans reclaim the Southwest US land they lost in the Mexican War. However, the US intercepted that message. I remember many Americans wanted war after the Lusitania and used it as a rallying cry.
In my history book, Lusitania gets a paragraph that's hardly 4 sentences long. The American chase for Pancho or the possible Mexican/German alliance? Nada.
Posted by: Shawn at October 19, 2003 9:33 PMAre you talking about Veracruz?
If so, I think that only tangentially involves Villa.
My understanding is that we only started going after Villa in 1916, and that ultimately it was that we supported one of his rivals in the Mexican Civil War that caused the whole tiff with him in the first place.
The way I have it in my head, we didn't like who came out on top of the Mexican Civil War, but the Germans did. So, when three American sailors were arrested on a Mexican dock, we raised a big stink, and Mexico handed them over. We then asked for twenty-one gun salute from the city of Veracruz for the American flag. The Mexican government (what there was of it) refused, so we took Veracruz. This kind of helped the Mexican dictator out the door, a new president was named, it wasn't Villa, we recognized the new prez and hence pissed off Pancho.
Posted by: Chad at October 20, 2003 1:44 PMChad, your small explanation gives more detail than my book did. 
Last night, I did a Google search for the possible German/Mexican alliance. I found "The Zimmerman Telegraph." After seeing that name did I remember what it meant. That is not mentioned in the book at all.
Posted by: Shawn at October 20, 2003 2:00 PM
