Why is John Wayne trading with an evil dictator ?

The Duke declines to sell his horses to the US government and instead decides to sell them to the foreign-imposed dictator of Mexico whom the US government refused to recognise at the time (instead the US supported the former president Juarez whose forces eventually overthrew Maximilian). This is all done with a cheerie smile that business is business.

As a colonel in the Union army, John Henry Thomas would surely have been aware of the following resolution passed by Congress:

“Resolved, &c., That the Congress of the United States are unwilling, by silence, to leave the nations of the world under the impression that they are indifferent spectators of the deplorable events now transpiring in the Republic of Mexico; and they therefore think fit to declare that it does not accord with the policy of the United States to acknowledge a monarchical government, erected on the ruins of any republican government in America, under the auspices of any European power.”


The Rock Hudson character is based on General Joseph Shelby whose purpose in going to Mexico was to offer his troops up as mercenaries to Maximilian (presumably in order to help crush the Juarez republicans). It is not entirely clear to me what Hudson is trying to get out of Mexico but presumably that is his intent too?

And these guys are supposed to be the film's heroes?