The Mexican War, 1846-1848 by K. Jack Bauer

It is a presentist argument, and from comments that punctuate Bauer’s narrative it is clear that his major objective is to establish a parallel between the Mexican War and the recent American experience in Southeast Asia, except that in its conflict with Mexico the United States ultimately prevailed.īauer’s thesis may be arresting to many contemporary readers, and may also contain an element of truth. “The Americans did not understand mid-nineteenth century Mexico,” Bauer concludes, “and failed to realize that the Mexicans would not countenance the loss of territory unless it was forced on them by the destruction of their capacity to resist.” (pp. He argues that as Polk and his advisors gradually escalated United States military actions they merely prompted and allowed Mexico to respond in kind, so that in the end the conflict was much more bitter and protracted than it should have been. Polk’s application of graduated force in his policies toward Mexico. With a deliberate eye on Vietnam, Bauer condemns James K. He views the war itself as the outcome of an inevitable conflict between Mexico and the United States for possession of the lands that now make up the American Southwest, in which expansionist sentiments within American society determined the general direction of events.

The greatest portion of Bauer’s narrative is devoted to military operations, but his approach to the Mexican War is broader than this suggests. Bauer’s work is an important break in this pattern, for it is based upon extensive research among both primary and secondary sources, and while its weight of scholarship does not rival that of Smith’s history it is easily the most serious study of the Mexican War we have had in recent times.

It is now fifty-six years since Justin Smith’s War with Mexico appeared, and although several histories of the war have been published since none has done much more than synthesize previously published works-including Smith’s-with little to offer of their own except a point of view. The publishers of this book state that it is “the first large-scale study in fifty years” of the Mexican War, and in one sense their claim is too modest. Berge, Professor of History, San Diego State University, author of “A Mexican Dilemma: The Mexico City Ayuntamiento and the Question of Loyalty, 1846-1848,” Hispanic American Historical Review (May, 1970), and editor-translator of Considerations on the Political and Social Situation of The Mexican Republic, 1847 (1975) New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., lnc., 1974.

The Mexican War, 1846-1848 by K. Jack Bauer