Pershing's Punitive Expedition

he Punitive Expedition led by Brigadier General John J. Pershing in Mexico from March 1916 to February 1917 in pursuit of Francisco Villa is one of the more obscure campaigns conducted by the United States Army. The changing role of the United States in the world should encourage Americans to reexamine the history which this country shares with Mexico. It is the purpose of this study to identify and examine the significant aspects of the Punitive Expedition and to provide an interpretive guide to the study of that subject. Most of the sources used were published in the United States although a few are English translations of Mexican works. Also some Mexican materials which have not been translated were used. Few detailed accounts of the Punitive Expedition have been written but a wealth of information was found in general periodicals and professional magazines of the period as well as in memoirs, novels, history books, War Department records and other government documents. Private, moneyed interests appear to have had great influence upon politicians, advisers and decision makers involved in Mexican-American relations during this period. American policymakers lacked sympathetic insight into Mexico's problems. President Wilson's ignorance of the Mexican psyche may have prevented him from ever understanding the almost universal rejection by Mexicans of any sort of American intervention in Mexico. Many of the lessons learned from the experiences of Pershing and his men were ignored by Americans preparing to engage in activities of a similar nature in Vietnam fifty years later. The enemy in Mexico was an equally elusive one operating with the support of local partisans. The failure of America's political and military leaders to understand the realities of Mexico's internal situation did much to create then exacerbate a situation which could have brought the two countries to war.