At the same time, Germany masterfully turned Mexico into a credible threat to America. Germany was successful in exploiting America’s division and its isolationism. There was also Wilson’s concern over Mexican threats along America’s southern border. Irish Americans, a significant Democratic Party constituency in urban areas, were anti-English. German Americans, a significant voter segment in America’s rural areas and small towns, were pro-German and anti-French. They were already filibustering the “Armed Ship Bill” which authorized the arming of American merchant ships against German submarines. They had enough votes in the Senate to filibuster a war resolution. It took forty-four days for American public opinion to coalesce around declaring war.Īmericans were deeply divided on intervening in the “European War.” Republicans were solidly isolationist. The Senate approved the Declaration on April 4 and the House on April 6. On April 4, President Wilson finally went before a Joint Session of Congress requesting a Declaration of War against Germany. It is true.” German officials tried to rationalize the Telegram as only a contingency plan, legitimately protecting its interests should America enter the war against them. At a Manews conference, Zimmermann confirmed the telegram stating, “I cannot deny it. President Woodrow Wilson was enraged and shared it with American newspaper reporters on February 28. After decoding it and confirming its authenticity, it was sent on to the White House Staff. On February 19, 1917, British Foreign Office officials shared the older encoded version of Zimmermann Telegram with U.S. American-based British spies confirmed that the older code, and its decryption, was already in the files of the American Telegraph Company. The encryption would be an older version, which the Germans would consider a mistake and assume it was such an old code it was already broken. This “mole” would steal the Zimmermann Telegram and send it, still encrypted, to British intelligence. They would invent a “mole” inside the German Embassy in Mexico City. He and his team created an elaborate ruse. At the time, the “Great War” was a bloody stalemate and unrest in Russia was tilting the outcome in favor of Germany.ĭe Grey’s challenge was how to orchestrate the telegram getting to American officials without exposing British espionage operations or the breaking of the German codes. Such a documented threat might force the U.S. De Grey and his team immediately understood the explosive impact of its contents. On January 16, 1917, the Zimmerman Telegram was intercepted and decoded. On a daily basis, messages flowed, unfettered and unread, between diplomatic outposts and European capitals.Įnter Nigel de Grey and his “Room 40” codebreakers.īritish Intelligence monitored the American Atlantic cable, violating its neutrality. European governments, on both sides of the war, were allowed to use the American cable for diplomatic communications with their embassies in North and South America. The story of how this telegram became the pivotal document of World War I reads like a James Bond movie.Īmerica was neutral during the early years of the “Great War.” It also managed the primary transatlantic telegraph cable. Please call the President’s attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain, and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. It outlined Germany’s plans to support Mexico in a war with the United States should America enter the European War: The Zimmermann Telegram was a message sent by Arthur Zimmermann, a senior member of the German Foreign Office in Berlin, to Ambassador Heinrich von Eckardt in the German Embassy in Mexico City. It was this, and not the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915, that led to the U.S. Germany officially admitted to sending the “Zimmermann Telegram,” which exposed a complex web of international intrigue, to keep America out of World War I. On March 3, 1917, 162 words changed the course of World War I and the history of the 20 th Century. Tips from Past “We The Future” Contest Winners!.
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