I want to tell the story of a man who grew up in a simple household but through inventiveness and cunning rose to great heights. His wealth, his intelligence and his incredible fighting skills earned him the financial backing of the United States, which readily supplied him with advanced weaponry. For a time he was considered a hero and darling of the American public until one day he turned on his former supporters, sending his men to attack the United States homeland.
Before Osama bin Laden, he was the only man who ever "successfully" invaded the United States - successfully because he attacked and killed American men, women and children on American soil and was never captured or killed in retribution. I wrote about him in an earlier article - the Mexican folk hero most commonly known as Pancho Villa.
Like Osama, he went by a nome de guerre as he was born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula but is known much more widely as Francisco "Pancho" Villa. Due to a number of movies and books, most people think of a man astride a horse, wearing a large sombrero and a jacket crisscrossed with bandoliers of bullets. Although he died in 1923, he still represents a historic figure in Mexican history today.
Mexico was convulsed by a revolution from about 1910 to 1928, when several (then) guerilla leaders sought to overthrow the puppet government of the dictator Porfirio Diaz. Although puppet states seem to be a novelty, they are extremely old and Diaz served in the "usual" mold of an American dictator - suppressing human rights in the name of commercial enterprise.
However Diaz was severely overthrown by a series of revolutionary leaders and the United States then switched its support to Venustio Carranza, who became the president in 1914. However several of the revolutionary/guerilla leaders opposed Carranza, including Pancho Villa as well as Emiliano Zapata (who has since inspired the Marxist EZLN who effectively still rule in Chiapas).
From 1900-1909, Pancho Villa was effectively a "bandito", stealing cattle from the wealthy and selling it for enormous profits. He had the support of the poor locals however because he fought against the repressive police forces in the area. With his wealth, intelligence and charm, he soon led what was effectively a private army. It was this force that the American government originally supported and Villa became a darling in the United States for fighting the brief dictatorship of Victoriano Huerta. Oddly for the time and the culture, Villa did not consume any alcoholic beverages whatsoever. He also married several women - some reports say he had as many as 26 wives.
There are conflicting explanations, but Villa fell out with the American government and his private army attacked the border town of Columbus, New Mexico in 1915. This ended his popularity in the United States but increased his standing in Mexico for what was considered a bold and valiant strike against the imperialism of its northern neighbor. Some say the attack was provoked by a weapons deal "gone bad" with American merchants. Other reports say that it was because Villa was upset that the United States was backing Carranza instead of himself for the presidency. Other reports say Villa was trying to provoke a full-scale American invasion of Mexico, which would rally the people to his side and weaken support for Carranza.
Whatever the reasons, the attack against Columbus followed Villa's men killing American citizens inside Mexico. While those earlier deaths had provoked outrage, the boldness and audacity of an assault on American soil got President Woodrow Wilson's attention and he dispatched the 13th U.S. Cavalry after Pancho Villa. Wilson also called out 15,000 soldiers to safeguard the border and organized a full-scaled military expedition to capture and kill Pancho Villa. That expedition was led by Brigadier General John J. Pershing, who later commanded American troops in World War 1.
Pershing's expedition completely failed. One of the primary reasons was that it was hamstrung by an order not to upset the "legitimate" leadership of Carranza's government in Mexico. Pershing had to hire and pay many local leaders (allied to Carranza) to "guide" his troops, further hindering the operation. Villa and his guerillas hid in the mountains of northern Mexico, their home base, and were quite easily able to hide from the American force - which by the way used air power to try and root out Villa. The mountain range where Villa and his men hid out (the Sierra Nevadas) were also filled with caves and deep canyons, providing excellent cover.
Because Villa was a local hero, the villagers that the Americans encountered along the way cheerfully took the Americans' money and aid but misled them as to where Villa and his men actually were. Because the Americans were far from home, they had to create an enormous supply train and most of the work in maintaining the army was undertaken by civilian workers. Many of Villa's men also escaped detection by taking off their weaponry and effortlessly blending in the local population.
During the operation, one junior American officer committed what would today would be considered a war crime. The young lieutenant and a small group of his men attacked a house that had some of Villa's guerillas inside, including one of his top aides, Julio Cardenas. Three Mexicans were killed and the American lieutenant tied the bodies of the three men onto the hood of his car and drove around that way to "send a message" to the local populace. When this lieutenant got back to base camp with his grisly trophies, he was considered a hero by the American press for making a great advance in the war against the terrorist Villa. That young officer was Lieutenant George S. Patton, who later became the famed general of American forces in World War 2. Given his earlier history, his nickname "Old Blood and Guts" seems quite appropriate.
Villa also tricked the Americans several times into attacking Mexicans who were "friendlies" - allied to the pro-American Carranza government, which further turned the local populace against the United States. As the expedition to capture Villa bogged down, American troops turned to heavy drinking and carousing, which led to several shootings of innocent men. The expedition ended in early 1917 as a total failure - as Villa was uncaptured and doing quite well - but the American generals and leadership considered it a success and the American press played it up that way as well.
Despite the fact that the American government considered it "mission accomplished", Villa remained at large and his popularity with the Mexican people soared as he had attacked the United States and lived to tell about it - adding to him an aura of invincibility. Villa was later killed during an "ordinary" robbery by Mexican gunmen, but is considered by many Mexicans today to be a semi-mythical "Robin Hood" figure.
The parallels with Osama bin Laden are painfully obvious. The American government financed, lauded and backed a notoriously vicious and capable guerilla fighter. That fighter later had a political falling out with his former backers and turned his charm and finances into raising an army that later led a terrorist assault on American soil. The American public, and American president, responded to this outrage by promising to capture and kill him but failed to do so when poor military tactics were used - largely as a result of compromises of a political nature designed not to upset the local pro-American warlords.
The failure to capture the terrorist leader led to growing resentment by the indigenous populace against what became increasingly clearly seen as an American occupation - and the situation was not helped any by American troops committing atrocities against innocent locals with impunity. Another parallel is Pershing's telegraphed message to President Wilson "Villa is everywhere but Villa is nowhere", which could easily be equally applied to Osama bin Laden today.
There were even camps set up by the Americans to detain suspected Villa sympathizers, although in those days the term "concentration camp" had not yet been invented and they were more like ordinary prisons than punitive/torture facilities. In the case of the expedition to capture Pancho Villa, a total of over 20,000 American soldiers took part. Many of Villa's top assistants and men were killed but Villa himself survived and even prospered. Millions of dollars were spent on what was unquestionable a failure, yet it was labeled a "success". And just like in the case of Osama bin Laden, the eagerness and focus of the hunt waned significantly when another war claimed the country's attention - in the case of Villa, it was the fighting of World War 1 in Europe.
Pershing's forces bogged down in unfamiliar, mountainous terrain and their reliance on the sympathy of local residents - who nearly all felt a greater allegiance to Pancho Villa. Despite vastly superior firepower and military technology, including airplanes, Pershing's forces were, in the end, unable to defeat a much smaller and more poorly equipped enemy. It's also worth noting that the expedition to kill Pancho Villa was the first time that National Guardsmen were called up to participate in a federal war or military action, a precedent which continues in Afghanistant today.
Despite his brigandry, Villa also maintained his ideals - and he scrupulously divided up the estates of wealthy plantation owners to the widows and orphans of members of his army. Villa was beloved not only for his financial generosity but also for his support of the local culture and his stature after escaping punishment by the mighty United States only added to that.
The total number of Americans that Villa's men killed was very low - a few hundred at most. Yet he and Osama bin Laden still share the "title" of warlords at the head of private "armies" that attacked Americans on American soil with impunity. In a modern era that often has difficulty remembering what occurred a year ago, it's always worth our time to look back and see how little that is original has actually transpired.
On a final eerie note paralelling these two men, when Villa's men attacked that New Mexican town nearly a century ago, they were heard to be shouting "Death to America"...
Peace