Some of the oil companies, led by Edward Doheny, succeeded in whipping up strong sentiment in Washington for military intervention to protect “vital” American-owned oil reserves in Mexico. The battle was made even more complicated by the efforts of Mexico to raise revenues to pay off foreign loans on which it had defaulted. Leading American bankers were keen to see Mexico make good on its debts, for which it needed oil revenues. And thus they took Mexico’s side against the American oil companies and strongly opposed the companies’ call for intervention and punitive sanctions.
