NORTHCOM Battle Knowledge Centers

Border Conflict chronicles the activities of Venustiano Carranza’s Constitutionalist army and presents original insights from Mexican correspondence, telegrams, and military documents. In the examination of the events along the border, the book includes the invasion of Mexico by the United States Punitive Expedition. The Punitive Expedition, under command of General John J. Pershing, further complicated the volatile situation on the northern frontier of Mexico and led to diplomatic tensions and the threat of war.

During the tumultuous campaigns to resolve American and Indian disputes, the U.S. infantry and famed Buffalo Soldiers faced off with Geronimo and his Apache nation in both tense negotiations and bitter combat.

This story leads readers to increased respect for the people of Mexico and its revolutionary leaders—Zapata, Obregon, Carranza, and Pancho Villa. It shows that, while American troops performed well, U.S. intervention had no effect on the outcome of the Mexican Revolution. The American army had a taste of battle and Pershing went on to become the greatest American hero of the First World War.

Catching Villa would prove to be difficult, and to do it, Black Jack Pershing and his force needed to rely on local intelligence. Pershing referred to his intelligence-gathering organization as the Intelligence Section, whose officers interrogated prisoners, recruited guides, interpreters, and informers, and organized a secret service of Mexican expatriates who were more than willing to provide their services against Villa.

Max Boot tells the exciting stories of our sometimes minor but often bloody landings in Samoa, the Philippines, China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Russia, and elsewhere. Along the way he sketches colorful portraits of little-known military heroes such as Stephen Decatur, "Fighting Fred" Funston, and Smedley Butler. From 1800 to the present day, such undeclared wars have made up the vast majority of our military engagements. Yet the military has often resisted preparing itself for small wars, preferring instead to train for big conflicts that seldom come