Huerta immediately declared that the deposed president had been killed in the crossfire when a group of sympathizers tried to rescue him. To lend credence to Huerta's fabrication, the faithful Henry Lane Wilson issued a statement insisting that it was the truth. There is a final grotesque touch. February 22, the day of Madero's murder, is Washington's birthday. That night Wilson invited Huerta to a reception at the American embassy.
History has a way of setting events into proper perspective.
In January 1954 a Gallup poll showed Harry Truman to be a highly unpopular ex-president and revealed that 50 percent of the American people approved of Senator Joe McCarthy's investigations. Today Truman is widely respected and McCarthy's name has become a synonym for political gangsterism. Today, Madero shares honors with Ju rez and Hidalgo in the pantheon of Mexican heroes while Huerta is universally despised and Wilson is a figure of opprobrium on both sides of the border.