Editing History of Mexico (section)

=== Manuel Ávila Camacho presidency and World War II ===
{{Main|Manuel Avila Camacho}}
[[File:Gilberto Bosques.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Gilberto Bosques Saldívar]] took the initiative to rescue tens of thousands of Jews and [[Spanish Republican]] exiles from being deported to [[Nazi Germany]] or Spain.]]
[[Manuel Ávila Camacho]], Cárdenas's successor, presided over a "bridge" between the revolutionary era and the era of machine politics under PRI that lasted until 2000. Ávila Camacho, moving away from nationalistic autarky (economic self-sufficiency), proposed creating a favorable climate for international investment, a policy favored nearly two generations earlier by Madero. Ávila's regime froze wages, repressed strikes, and persecuted dissidents with a law prohibiting the "crime of social dissolution." During this period, the PRI shifted to the right and abandoned much of the radical nationalism of the Cárdenas era. [[Miguel Alemán Valdés]], Ávila Camacho's successor, amended Article 27 to limit land reform, protecting large landowners.<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephen R. Niblo|title=Mexico in the 1940s: Modernity, Politics, and Corruption|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WKs-UoFtbTYC&pg=PA75|year= 2000|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=75|isbn=978-0-8420-2795-3}}</ref>

Mexico played a relatively minor military role in [[World War II]]. Relations between Mexico and the U.S. had been warming in the 1930s, particularly after U.S. President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] implemented the [[Good Neighbor Policy]] toward Latin American countries.<ref>Howard F. Cline, ''The United States and Mexico''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1961, 271.</ref> Even before the outbreak of hostilities between the Axis and Allied powers, Mexico aligned itself firmly with the United States, initially as a proponent of "belligerent neutrality," which the U.S. followed before the [[Attack on Pearl Harbor]] in December 1941. Mexico sanctioned businesses and individuals identified by the U.S. government as being supporters of the Axis powers; in August 1941, Mexico broke off economic ties with Germany, then recalled its diplomats from Germany, and closed the German consulates in Mexico.<ref name="Cline, p. 266">Cline, ''U.S. and Mexico'', p. 266.</ref> The [[Confederation of Mexican Workers]] (CTM) and the [[Confederation of Mexican Peasants]] (CNC) staged massive rallies in support of the government.<ref name="Cline, p. 266"/> Mexico's biggest contributions to the war effort were in vital war equipment and labor. There was heavy demand for its exports, which created a degree of prosperity.<ref>{{cite book|author=Monica A. Rankin|title=¡México, la Patria!: Propaganda and Production During World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uHTj6sXels8C&pg=PA295|year=2010|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-2455-1}} p.&nbsp;294–95</ref>

[[File:BraceroProgram.jpg|thumb|The first ''Braceros'' arrive in [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]] by train in 1942. Photograph by [[Dorothea Lange]].]]

In Mexico and throughout Latin America, Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy" was necessary at such a delicate time. Much work had already been accomplished between the U.S. and Mexico to create more harmonious relations between the two countries, including the settlement of U.S. citizen claims against the Mexican government, initially and ineffectively negotiated by the binational [[American-Mexican Claims Commission]], but then in direct bilateral negotiations between the two governments.<ref name="Cline, p. 267">Cline, ''U.S. and Mexico'', p. 267.</ref> The U.S. government did not intervene on behalf of U.S. oil companies during the [[Mexican oil expropriation]], allowing Mexico to assert its economic sovereignty but also benefiting the U.S. by easing antagonism in Mexico. The Good Neighbor Policy led to the Douglas-Weichers Agreement in June 1941 that secured the sale of Mexican oil to the United States,<ref>{{harvnb|Rankin|2006|p=21}}</ref> and the [[Global Settlement (Mexico)|Global Settlement]] in November 1941 that ended oil company demands on generous terms for the Mexicans, an example of the U.S. putting national security concerns over the interests of U.S. oil companies.<ref>{{harvnb|Rankin|2006|pp=22–23}}</ref> When it became clear in other parts of Latin America that the U.S. and Mexico had substantially resolved their differences, the other Latin American countries were more amenable to support the U.S. and Allied efforts against the Axis.<ref name="Cline, p. 267"/>

Following losses of oil ships in the [[Gulf of Mexico|Gulf]] (the ''[[SS Potrero del Llano|Potrero del Llano]]'' and ''[[Faja de Oro]]'') to German submarines, the Mexican government declared war on the [[Axis powers]] on May 30, 1942.<ref>Cline, ''U.S. and Mexico'', p. 269.</ref> Perhaps the most famous fighting unit in the [[Mexican Armed Forces]] was the ''[[201st Fighter Squadron (Mexico)|Escuadrón 201]]'', also known as the ''Aztec Eagles.''<ref name="Klemen">{{cite web
|last = Klemen
|first = L
|title = 201st Mexican Fighter Squadron
|url = https://warfare.gq/dutcheastindies/201squadron.html
|work = The Netherlands East Indies 1941–1942
|access-date = 2021-03-30
|archive-date = 2022-10-28
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221028054752/http://warfare.gq/dutcheastindies/201squadron.html
|url-status = dead
}}201st Mexican Fighter Squadron</ref> The ''Escuadrón 201'' was the first Mexican military unit trained for overseas combat and fought during the [[Philippines campaign (1944–1945)|liberation of the Philippines]], working with the U.S. [[Fifth Air Force]] in the last year of the war.<ref name="Klemen" /> Although most Latin American countries eventually entered the war on the Allies' side, Mexico and [[Brazil]] were the only Latin American nations that sent troops to fight overseas during World War II.

With so many draftees, the U.S. needed farm workers. The [[Bracero Program]] allowed 290,000 Mexicans to work temporarily on American farms, especially in Texas.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Scruggs | first1 = Otey M. | year = 1963 | title = Texas and the Bracero Program, 1942–1947 | journal = Pacific Historical Review | volume = 32 | issue = 3| pages = 251–264 | doi = 10.2307/4492180 | jstor=4492180}}</ref>