Talk:Mexican Border Service Medal

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Military history: North America / United States Start‑class

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Zimmerman telegram and the supposed German threat inspiring this award

"The decoration recognizes those military service members who performed military service on the U.S.-Mexico border between the dates of January 1, 1916 and April 6, 1917, a period of time where the US-Mexico border was perceived to be threatened by a suggested German-funded invasion (discovered by the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram)."

This is frankly nonsense. The National Guard was mobilized for the border beginning in May 1916. The Zimmerman telegram was sent and discovered by the US & UK in January 1917 and made public a month later. The Guard troops were called up as a rear guard to the war effort in Mexico, since more and more regular Army personnel were being sent into Mexico, depleting defenses on the American side of the border.

The National Guard did more broadly play into discussions of American readiness for war in Europe and debates over the force structure (ie, should the US have a large regular army and the Guard abolished or some other balance of land forces). Fears over a German invasion from the south had nothing to do with this deployment and only influenced the issuance of the medal in the most generic sense (that of fostering a patriotic support for the troops).

Several of the points I touched on can be found in this excellent monograph: National Guard on the Mexican Border, 1916 - 1917 by Major Brent Orr of the North Carolina Army National Guard.

One extended quote from that monograph: "Some reports and official accounts go a little deeper by discussing the mobilization of the National Guard in order to protect railroads and other utilities on the Mexican Border and also train in the "mobilization camps since war with the German Imperial Government" had begun. Topics relating to the latter part of this insight might encourage some to argue that the impending American involvement in World War I was the root cause for the 1916 mobilization, and the border violence just an opportunity to validate the Guard. This idea is akin to a test, audit, or grand preparedness inspection to gauge the readiness of the country’s reserve military. There is simply no evidence found in conducting the research for this paper supporting this overzealous assertion."

The little bit of uncited trivia regarding a German invasion appears to be polluting mentions of this award across the wider web and will be removed from this page until valid sources can be cited.

Mayberrymachiavelli (talk) 14:25, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]