Woodrow Wilson returned to the White House early from his Virginia honeymoon with his second wife, Edith, in January 1916.

Too much was going on to allow him to stay away from Washington any longer.

Germany's U-boat war was still challenging Wilson's policy of neutrality,

and Pancho Villa was killing American citizens in Mexico

as part of a deliberate effort to force Wilson to send the U.S. Army across the border.

If all that wasn't bad enough, it was an election year.

A mishandling of either of these two delicate issues could easily lead to electoral disaster.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music The

The Theean, Episode 129, Everywhere and Nowhere.

When we last talked about Mexico, we ended in March 1916, when Pancho Villa crossed the border

into the U.S. state of New Mexico and attacked the town of Columbus.

I want to pick up that thread today, but before I do,

I'm going to have to reintroduce you to U.S. Army Brigadier General John Joseph Pershing,

and then we have to get caught up on events in the Philippines because, of course, we do.

John Joseph Pershing was born on September 13, 1860, in the town of La Clead in northern Missouri.

His father was of Pennsylvania German ancestry.

His mother's ancestors were English.

The Civil War broke out just months after John Joseph, the couple's first child,

was born. Mr. Pershing was a shopkeeper and a patriot. He did a good business during the war,

selling supplies to the U.S. Army. John Pershing was a good student, and after he graduated high school, he took a job in a local school that taught African American students, while at the same time studying at the state normal school.

For the benefit of you young people, a normal school is what we now call a teacher's college.

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