“U.S. Diplomacy and ‘The Specter of Bolshevism’ in Mexico (1924–1927)”
Scholars have paid considerable attention to the famous goodwill mission of Dwight Whitney Morrow to Mexico in 1927, but have written almost nothing about the conditions which necessitated it. An in-depth study of Morrow’s predecessor, James Rockwell Sheffield, whose ambassadorship (1924–27) featured a deterioration in Mexican-American relations, has yet to be published. During Sheffield’s tenure the administration of Plutarco Elias Calles made the strongest attempt to that time to implement the revolutionary program of “Mexico for the Mexicans” embodied in the Constitution of 1917. Especially alarming to Americans was legislation aimed at limiting foreign land-holding and severely restricting the privileges of foreign petroleum interests. These laws precipitated a prolonged diplomatic correspondence and generated considerable ill-will. This correspondence reached a complete impasse by the spring of 1926 since neither side was willing to compromise its position. The re-emergence of the perennial church-state conflict as well as Mexican opposition to American policies in Nicaragua further convulsed relations.