On the Fact that Not Only Did President Polk Send Thousands of Soldiers Into the Disputed Territory Between the Rio Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers (and to Label it Disputed Territory Is Being Generous In that Most Fair-Minded People Considered it Mexican Land), He Had a Fucking Fort Constructed There!!

Needless to say, the Mexicans responded militarily to these two bald provocations and so was set in motion a long line of American Presidents tricking a perceived antagonist into firing the first shot (Lincoln, McKinley, Wilson, FDR, LBJ, the Bushes, etc.). You might even say that we've made a cottage-industry of it. Sadly.