William Walker

[alexucci99]

Just wanted to post alittle bit on a previous term paper topic: William Walker. Anyway, a brief history:

-Founds two semi-succesful states in Sonora and Baja Mexico with the hopes of turning them into slave states to balance political power.

-"Elected" President of Nicaragua after a takeover

-Tries to take over Honduras, but is captured and executed.

Anyway, read up a little on this William Walker guy on wikipedia or something. I don't particularly agree with everything he had to say, but he was still a pretty amazing person.

Hope you all find it as interesting as I did...

[SpikeBayonet]

There's a supposedly decent (although a bit left-biased) movie about the man from the late 80's/early 90' staring Ed Harris - I've not seen it but I have the companion book and it looks prety cool. There is this fantasy bit in the end where US troops in helicopters evacuate americans as Nicaragua falls and they don't let Walker on board because he's "President of Nicaragua" and therefore not a US citizen - but otherwise the movie seems okay.

I also picked-up a reprint copy of Walker's book in Nashville (his home town) back when I lived there - pretty good primary source material.

I always found the so called "fillibusters" of the pre-Civil War era very interesting and a bit neglected in history class.

[rgu]

i had a dance on his execution ground in trujillo. then i went to ollie norths favorite hangout and had a drink.

[exarmyguard]

Any relation to Jimmy Walker or Johnnie Walker? I am sitting with Johnnie right now, sharing a drink. Cheers.

[OldRecon]

Is William Walker one of the same breed and generation of legendary US mercs in Latin America (loosely linked to United Fruit Co.) as "brigadier" Lee Christmas and Tracy Richardson?

[el borracho]

The movie came on some indie film channel late night one time. I caught it and was thoroughly confused until the very end. They kept slipping small modern aspects into the historically based movie, I actually thought they were movie mistakes until the very end. One example was a guy was riding in a horse-drawn buggy, and reading a copy of Time magazine.

The film depicted Walker as being very patriotic and driven to deliver democracy to these impoverished countries. After he was "elected" president, you can see the power go to his head and his grasp on reality starts to slip. The scene at the end ties everything together. It's basically a metaphor for how Americans have such a short-term memory when it comes to our own history. The average American doesn't realize what an impact the US has had on other countries, which adds fuel to the fire of the "ugly American" image abroad. At the time of this release, Americans knew of Central America only from the Iran-Contra scandal and the limited engagements we fought there during the cold war. They had no idea that throughout the 19th century Americans had been trying to economically and politically exploit those countries. The people of those countries remember that, yet we seem to forget.

[el borracho]

Is William Walker one of the same breed and generation of legendary US mercs in Latin America (loosely linked to United Fruit Co.) as "brigadier" Lee Christmas and Tracy Richardson?

I'm not familiar with those, but the movie did show how Walker cut a deal and was funded by Cornelius Vanderbilt. Once Walker started to power-trip, Vanderbilt turned on him and used his influence to topple Walker.

[Ordie]

Is William Walker one of the same breed and generation of legendary US mercs in Latin America (loosely linked to United Fruit Co.) as "brigadier" Lee Christmas and Tracy Richardson?

He was a product of his time. His activity happens on the heels of the Mexican War and the California Gold Rush. Many US veterans and volunteers had high hopes in aquiring lands in Mexico. Baja Califorinia was no exception. The NY Volunteers occupied La Paz and its environs. Everything was set to annex Mexico, however all did not go according to plan and the US Marines had to subdue the Volunteers and go back to the US. Needless to say many felt cheated.

Fast Forward: The Gold rush brought unexpected growth. The town of Yerba Buena (San Francisco) rapidly became the first metropolitan area on the Pacific Coast. The problem was how to move the gold and settlers between NY and San Francisco in a timely manner. The voyage arond the Horn took a while. To secure his transportation business, Cornelius Vanderbuilt hired Walker to not only to secure his overland route across Nicaragua, but also ensure Vanderbiult got the contract. The people that followed Walker were some of the Mexican War vet seeking land and fortune along the way.

[SpikeBayonet]

Speaking of Walker's generation - I read a thesis back in college that blamed the general belicose nature of American (especially southern) men of that era (roughly 1820's thru the Civil War) on the fact that every household had - in addition to a King James version of the Bible, a copy of Ivanhoe! Basically they were raised on this whole notion of chivary and what a grand adventure war can be and it led to all sorts of mischief. I know it sounds silly, but not as silly as most of the mis-information I learned in college...

[fuzzyramirez]

There's a supposedly decent (although a bit left-biased) movie about the man from the late 80's/early 90' staring Ed Harris - I've not seen it but I have the companion book and it looks prety cool. There is this fantasy bit in the end where US troops in helicopters evacuate americans as Nicaragua falls and they don't let Walker on board because he's "President of Nicaragua" and therefore not a US citizen - but otherwise the movie seems okay.

I also picked-up a reprint copy of Walker's book in Nashville (his home town) back when I lived there - pretty good primary source material.

I always found the so called "fillibusters" of the pre-Civil War era very interesting and a bit neglected in history class.

It's called "Walker"
http://www.amazon.com/Walker-Ed-Harris/dp/B00008WJ6F/sr=1-1/qid=1166411083/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-3996085-9796868?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

[Ordie]

I saw the movie. It was filmed in Nicaragua during the Sandinista years. The movie was good until the very end. It got surreal when a Mil-17 landed in a town square offloading US Marines.