The Marines in Mexico
Sir: As an admirer of Richard West's reportage I have no relish in calling atte_11; non to his mistake in saying ('The Salvador inheritance', 7 March) that contrary to the lyrics of their hymn (Iwt `marching song') the US Marines 'have never gone into Mexico City, only the outskirts of the country.' The historical fact is that on 14 September 1847 a battalion of Marines occupied the surrendered Mexican National Palace, the 'Halls of the Mont'mas' to Mexicans, having participated in the earlier battle for Chapultepec. During the US war with Mexico, Marines also were landed (as, notably, at Vera Cruz) and fought in the interior (Puebla, Cerro Gorr' do, San Agustin and Cherubusco); subse quently, they garrisoned Laguan and Alvar" do. Incidentally, 'Montezuma' is a corrqt version of the more precise English rendtbon, `Moctezuma'. The US Marine Corps has long wished that the bluff Smedley Butler had not been given to such brutish (and substantially inaccurate) remarks as those Mr West quotes. For example, then-Captain But,ler may have been aboard a navy vessel lying off Tampico on 6 April 1914, but he was no! making the city 'safe for American od interests'. What happened on that date was that several American sailors were arrested by the Mexican army while ashore on a, working party; they were soon released aria the Mexicans ignored an American request for an apology.
Robert Lindsay
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
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