sturdy history. it was soon followed by the 2005 release of jefferson s vendetta: the pursuit of aaron burr and the judiciary, elegantly written and smartly conceived. tonight we are here to celebrate his newest release, invading mexico. so please, join me in giving a warm welcome to mr. joseph whelan. [applause] i want to thank you for coming, and i want to thank quail ridge for inviting me. this is my third visit here. really appreciate it. um, let s start by talking about what the mexican war was and was not, and then i ll go into some more of the details. mexican war is one of america s o forgotten wars. the civil war 15 years later all but erased its memory. this has robbed us of insight into the origins of other wars. for example, in important ways the mexican war is a distant echo of the iraqi war. and mexico s abiding distrust and resentment of the united states can be traced to the mexican war. the mexican war also hastened the civil war. it might not have been f