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Re: I heard one of the promos for the show on the radio, and a historian was describing Jim Bowie as a criminal.

Well, old Jim was not as pure white as driven snow in any way of thinking. However, he was one brave son-of-a-gun.

My late Father knew Commando Kelly who won the Medal of Honor in Italy in WW2. Dad said the guy was a pure thug, but added, "That sonmabitch could fight!"

The show pointed out very clearly that Bowie was a lying land grabbing cheat who ran away to Texas so that he could escape the law.

Santa Ana was rightfully portrayed as a cowardly piece of scum, who brutally ordered the execution of those his forces defeated.

I enjoyed the show and on Cinco de Mayo I will be thinking "Remember The Alamo".

The program said that Jim Bowie had been making fraudulent land claims in Louisianna and the law was about to catch up with him when he decided to "relocate" to Texas. They did say that he had such a great personality that everyone thought highly of him and to a man he was considered very brave.

William Travis, who wound up commanding the Alamo during the battle(with Bowie sick), had abandoned his family...wife and children, ran off to Texas and portrayed himself in Texas as a "bachelor".

Davy Crocket was portrayed as having gone to Texas to lick his wounds after political defeat.

My only great surprise was the slave "Joe" who somehow managed to survive but was ever heard from again.

I don't know about everyone else (perhaps this is a Texas thing), but this program was promoted as "the real truth about what happened". They made a big deal that they wanted to set the record straight re: the belief in this country that this was about the "dirty" Mexicans and the "pure as snow" Americans. They claimed that most Americans believe it was a race or cultural war. I personally have never been taught that or thought it. I knew there were "Mexicans" or "tejanos" (I think that is the term) on the Alamo side. Do most people in the US view it as racial?

Hey it's always all about race, isn't it? The Americans wanted the land only because the "dirty" Mexicans had it. It could never simply be that somebody saw nice land and wanted it...no matter WHO had a claim to it.