What started the Mexican War? There are two people from each side to fight for their argument. The two sides are those who believe Polk is to blame for the war, and those who believe there were other underlying forces that caused the war. The two people who I will talk about is Nugent and Graebner. Nugent’s thesis is that Polk is to blame for the war; Graebner’s thesis is that it isn’t Polk’s fault. I believe that Graebner’s fence sitting means that he believes in his own argument and shouldn’t be consider a genuine argument.
Graebner believes that diplomatic and cultural factors –like the manifest destiny- forced the war and that it was out of Polk’s hands. Graebner believed that the US military in Texas pushing towards Mexico was part of
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Nugent says that Polk is: ignorant but not stupid, uncivilized, and a tennesian like A. Jackson. This lead to his greedy demands of wanting more land from Mexico after their victory. Nugent thought Polk up his demands and wanting all of Mexico. However, he was cut short by the Whigs and settled with Mexico quickly. Polk was greedy for more and more land because he was a narrow-minded bigot. Also, Polk thought he could do whatever he wanted, which allowed him to take advantage of the Mexican War. One move that screwed over Polk is that he sent an Ambassador named Slidell to talk with Mexico. Instead, of sending someone who has the right credentials to handle the situation appropriately. Polk sent Slidell because he was a buddy and could trust him. He knew that Slidell was a non-credential person and would get rejected by Mexico, which will give him another reason for war. Nugent strongly believes because of the way Polk presents himself and the way he acted, he was the cause of the war. Nugent is sitting on the fence about his decision on Polk like Graebner …show more content…
I agree more Nugent than Graebner because of Graebner’s fence-sitting on Polk. This reinforced my decision to pick Nugent. I am sure a more qualified passionate person than Graebner can replace him for that particular side of the argument and my outcome would’ve been the same. However, Graebner had doubt which can be a game changer of on whose argument is