The Ludlow Massacre |

The conflict between striking mineworkers and the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company comes to a deadly climax on April 20, 1914. Two women and 11 children will suffocate to death in a cellar dug underneath a tent in the colony where striking mineworkers and their families had been living for over six months.

When details of the Battle at Ludlow and the disregard for the lives of the women and children at the worker's camp come to light, the nation reacts with horror and outrage. Historian Howard Zinn described the Ludlow Massacre as "the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history."

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
• historycolorado.org
• Eyewitness to Murder: Recounting the Ludlow Massacre
• History - UMWA
• pbs.org
• revolutionnewsstand.com
• Louis Tikas
• C-Span: Ludlow Coal Miners' Strike and Massacre
• Old Man Trump - woodyguthrie.org

The Mountain Meadows Massacre |

“This is the right place” declared Brigham Young as he entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.

Persecuted and harassed in every place they had tried to make a home, the Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons, establish Zion in the Great Salt Lake Valley. Ten years later, however, in 1857, rumors abound that President James Buchanan is sending someone new to replace Brigham Young as Governor of the Utah Territory.

The Mormons refuse to be persecuted any longer. If the United States wants war with the Mormons - war is what they will get.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks
• Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Newsroom
• The American Presidency Project: Republican Party Platform of 1856
• American Midnight by Adam Hochschild
• The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood by William Haywood
• Roughneck : the life and times of Big Bill Haywood by Peter Carlson
• Big Bill Haywood threatens to close the mines
• The Daily Journal (Telluride), April 21, 1914

The Invasion of Veracruz Part 2 |

On the anniversary of the Battle of Chapultepec (September 13, 1847), the President of Mexico recites the names of eight Los Niños Héroes (boy heroes) during the annual ceremony commemorating the young boy's ultimate act of patriotism and sacrifice.

Six of the eight Los Niños Héroes die during the Battle of Chapultepec (1847), and two die during the American Invasion of Veracruz in 1914.

Prior to the American landing in 1914, President Huerta orders Federal Troops to abandon Veracruz, leaving the defense of the city to its citizenry and to cadets at the Naval Academy. The cadets fight the Yankee Invaders for seven hours, and their safe and successful retreat is thanks, largely, to the courageous machine gun fire coverage provided by 19-year old José Azueta.

Mexicans are outraged by this American invasion and occupation of their city. Tensions will persist between these two countries to the present day, but some of that tension is eased a bit when President Harry S. Truman makes the first trip by an American President to Mexico in 1947, 100 years after the Battle of Chapultepec.

He makes an unscheduled stop at The Monumento a los Niños Héroes ("Monument to the Boy Heroes") and pays tribute to the brave young men. When asked why he visited the monument President Truman replied, "brave men don't belong to any one country. I respect bravery where I see it."

The eight Niños Héroes whose names are read aloud every year are: Juan de la Barrera, Juan Escutia, Francisco Márquez, Agustín Melgar, Fernando Montes de Oca, Vicente Suárez, Virgilio Uribe, and José Azueta.

Music from Epidemic Sound.

Sources for this episode include:

• The Library of Congress
• The Landing at Veracruz by Jack Sweetman
• An Affair of Honor by Robert E. Quirk
• Gangsters of Capitalism by Jonathan M. Katz
• Truman by David McCullough
• Plain Speaking – an Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman by Merle Miller
• The Chapultepec Group