privileges as such. At the speaker's words Tomás learns that new roads will be built and new public schools erected in every town; and, most important, the strong American dollar will replace the near worthless peso. He finds not only that American dollars will be poured into the renovation and welfare of Old Mexico, but that many corporations will be moving into the new non-tariffed area with vocational training programs for the large, more-than-willing-to-work force. After listening for sometime, Tomás gathers that after five years, martial law will cease and free elections will be held as in any other state. To help ease Mexico's annexation, the Ministry of Assimilation and Relation would provide liaisons and set up offices throughout Old Mexico-one office per every five hundred citizens. Though he was never numbered among the brighter of his father's sons, Tomás realizes that, though he might not be able to proudly identify himself as un Mexicano again, he will finally have a good chance to pull his family out of poverty and that his sons will actually be able to find promise in the future.
             And now, to state plainly, America should go the route of an invasion of force followed by a martial law for a few clear reasons: the cost of a brief exercise of military might and five years of troop placement is far and away the least expensive of all the plausible options out there; the casualties-corporeal, psychological, and spiritual-involved in an pure invasion could conceivably be lower, day for day, than Mexico's normal death rate; a forced assimilation would bring the rebellious into the reality of their ex-country's betterment far sooner than would more peaceable means; and, last, imposition of a military government for the first five years of that assimilation would insure the absence of revolts (both local and nationwide). After one truly understands these four aspects to the invasion...