ABSTRACT
The dominance of the dependent image of Mexico is apparent through the policies advocated by American negotiators and the information they accepted as true. The minority view of Mexico, the neutral image, appears to have been most evident in the Latin American Bureau and, in particular, the Mexican Desk, of the State Department. The dominance of the dependent view of Mexico was clear in Congress in 1977 and it heavily influenced trade matters. If trade policy gives some indication of the presence of the dependent image of Mexico, the complementary outlook on the illegal immigration issue present in the American political scene is even more clearly demonstrative of that image. The fact that different negotiators with a different image of Mexico produced a satisfactory agreement points to the importance of the psychological approach rather than the power determinist approach. The Mexican government and the American gas companies were both incensed about the failure of the gas negotiations.
