Two Nations Indivisible

Diplomatic Distance, Economic Embrace

In the 19th century and early 20th century, the United States and Mexico went to war, “nearly always to the detriment of Mexico.” The countries fought over what would become Texas; Mexicans view its secession as “radical American immigrants threatening national sovereignty,” and “a case of might triumphing over right.”

By the mid-20th century, US relations with Mexico entered an era of neutrality and neglect as American preoccupation with Russia intensified during the Cold War. US policy treated its neighbor to the south as “just one of many sources of migrants, a modest energy source, a peripheral world power and a Cold War backwater.” Mexico’s historically dominant political party, the PRI, stoked popular suspicion of exploitative “Yankee imperialism.” The PRI brought political stability to Mexico by “antidemocratic and corrupt means,” yet the US never criticized the party or Mexico’s government.

As corporate America expanded into Mexico, US companies supported the Mexican government more than they resisted it. For example, when Mexico struggled to make bond payments during its 1980s debt crisis, US banks pushed the International...