Mexican Revolution 100: US Forces Seize Veracruz, 1914

"U.S. Sailors entering Post Office, Vera Cruz." Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

Why were US armed forces taking over Veracruz one hundred years ago this week?

To quote Andy Warhol halfway in time between then and now, between now and then (for time is a double helix, and a vapory one at that): Why was this happening in 1914? 

"I don't know, what do you think?"

 

"Gathering [Mexican] Dead, Vera Cruz," 1914. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.  

"Every picture tells a story, don't it?" -- as that song by Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood from the early 1970s notes.

"Jackies entering barracks at Vera Cruz," July 15, 1914.  Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.  

 

Funeral parade in New York City for US armed forces killed in Veracruz, summer of 1914. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

'. . . I do hereby, under my authority as commanding officer of the military forces of the United States of America, proclaim that martial law exists in the City of Vera Cruz and the territory contiguous thereto now occupied by the forces under my command, and that such law shall be thereafter extended to such additional territory as may hereafter be occupied by my forces . . . Done at the City of Vera Cruz, this twenty-sixth [26th] of April, one thousand nine hundred and fourteen [1914] -- (Signed) F. F. Fletcher, Rear Admiral United States Navy, Commanding the forces of the United States of American now occupying Vera Cruz [aka Veracruz].' 

2014: Russia, Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Yemen -- what next?

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.