Book Review: The Warlords by Matt Braun
It is 1915, and in Europe, World War One is at something of a stalemate. The troops are entrenched, warplanes are still in their infancy, and while the new weapons of war mean far more deaths per capita, both sides have them. Kaizer Wilhelm’s military fears that despite President Woodrow Wilson’s preference for neutrality, the United States of America may be induced to join England and France, tipping the balance. But maybe America would be less inclined to meddle in European affairs if it had its own war to worry about, say, one with Mexico?
A plan is conceived to support a series of raids by supporters of former dictator Victoriano Huerta into Texas to provoke an American invasion of their southern neighbor. Colonel Franz von Kleist and Captain Otto Mueller sell this to Huerta as a way of weakening the current dictator, Venustiano Carranza, so that Huerta can return to power.
Mueller heads to Matamoras, Mexico, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas, to enlist the aid of Augustin Garza, Huerta’s best field leader. Garza plans to enlist not just Huerta loyalists, but other Mexicans and Tejanos angered by gringo racism and oppression to aid the cause. If they can also recruit the likewise oppressed Native Americans and the black population, so much the better. He calls this “The San Diego Plan.”
What the Germans and their Mexican allies don’t know is that the Americans have already caught wind of their plan. Agent Frank Gordon of the Bureau of Investigation (not yet the FBI) is sent to Brownsville to coordinate with the Texas Rangers and the U.S. Army to nip this plot in the bud, as President Wilson doesn’t want war with Mexico either. With the aid of Ranger Sergeant Hoyt Maddox Gordon must figure out who’s involved in the plan, what their goals are, and eventually how to stop them.
This novel is a heavily fictionalized version of raids that happened near the Mexican border in 1915. Those raids actually occurred much as described, but there’s no official documentation that a German conspiracy was behind them. While you’ll probably find this book on the Western shelf at the bookstore or library, and it has some trappings of the genre, it’s really more of a political thriller ala Tom Clancy.
It’s emphasized that many people of Mexican heritage living in the area do have valid grievances which could make them susceptible to joining the planned revolution. Gordon is shocked by the open and casual racism displayed by white Texans, and protests against brutalizing downed enemies, which only inflame the resentment. The bandit leaders, however, are equally blind to the injustice of their own actions, and towards the end Gordon is forced to admit that racism exists in Washington, D.C., if more subtly.
The writing’s a bit dry, but easily followed, and the characters seem believable.
Content note: Lethal violence, torture, racism and ethnic prejudice including slurs.
This is a serviceable novel in the “secret history” subgenre. Recommended to political thriller fans who also enjoy Westerns.
Here’s a video about the Mexican Revolution so you can follow along with the mentioned history.
