During the revolution, the United States twice sent troops to Mexico: in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson sent marines to Veracruz, to prevent arms from reaching Huerta; when, in March 1916, Villa, resentful at American recognition of the Carranza government, briefly raided the border town of Columbus, New Mexico, Wilson dispatched a futile ‘punitive expedition’ under General John Pershing (who the following year commanded a much more significant force in France).
