The Zimmermann Telegram

News of the telegram further inflamed tensions between the United States and Mexico. However, there was also a notable anti-British sentiment in the United States, particularly among German- and Irish-Americans. Many Americans wished to avoid the conflict in Europe. Since the public had been told untruthfully that the telegram had been stolen in a deciphered form in Mexico, the message was widely believed at first to be an elaborate forgery perpetrated by British intelligence.

This belief, which was not restricted to pacifist and pro-German lobbies, was promoted by German and Mexican diplomats and by some American newspapers, especially the Hearst press empire.

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This presented the Wilson administration with a dilemma. With the evidence the United States had been provided confidentially by the British, Wilson realized the message was genuine—but he could not make the evidence public without compromising the British codebreaking operation. Any doubts as to the authenticity of the telegram were removed by Arthur Zimmermann himself. First at a press conference on 3 March , he told an American journalist, "I cannot deny it.

On 1 February , Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships in the Atlantic bearing the American flag, both passenger and merchant ships. Two ships were sunk in February, and most American shipping companies held their ships in port.

Besides the highly provocative war proposal to Mexico, the telegram also mentioned "ruthless employment of our submarines". Public opinion demanded action. Wilson had previously refused to assign US Navy crews and guns to the merchant ships. However, once the Zimmermann note was public, Wilson called for arming the merchant ships, but anti-war elements in the United States Senate blocked his proposal.

Zimmermann, relations with Mexico, and the end of American neutrality

On 6 April , Congress voted to declare war on Germany ; Wilson had asked Congress for "a war to end all wars " that would "make the world safe for democracy". Woodrow Wilson considered another military invasion of Veracruz and Tampico in —, [25] [26] so as to take control of the Tehuantepec Isthmus and Tampico oil fields, [26] [27] but this time the relatively new Mexican President Venustiano Carranza threatened to destroy the oil fields in case the Marines landed there.

The Japanese government later released a statement that Japan was not interested in changing sides and attacking America. In October , it was reported that an original typescript of the deciphered Zimmermann Telegram had recently been discovered by an unnamed historian who was researching and preparing an official history of the United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters GCHQ. The document is believed to be the actual telegram shown to the American ambassador in London in Marked in Admiral Hall's handwriting at the top of the document are the words: However, after the discovery of this document, the GCHQ official historian said: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

United States involvement in the Mexican Revolution. This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. January Learn how and when to remove this template message. For The President's Eyes Only. Retrieved 17 January The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution.

Mediation at Niagara Falls, Mexico and the United States, Volume 3. University of New Mexico Press. The Oxford History of Mexico. American Foreign Relations, Volume 1: A History Since Houghton Mifflin College Division. The Codebreakers of World War I. Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies — US Naval Institute Press.

Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace: The Growth of American Foreign Policy: Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, — Mexico and Its Heritage. From there, it was transmitted to London and then to the German embassy in Washington, D.

Germany's secret proposal to Mexico, discovered

By January 19, Eckardt had received it in Mexico City. Unbeknownst to the Americans, British intelligence had been secretly tapping into the U. On January 17—two days before the telegram arrived in Washington—a British cryptanalyst named Nigel de Grey decoded the note. Protocol demanded that Room 40 immediately share its intelligence with the British foreign office, but Captain Hall chose to keep the Zimmermann Telegram under wraps for several weeks. The British hoped that the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare would be enough to draw the United States into the war, but when the program finally began on February 1, President Wilson limited himself to severing diplomatic relations with Germany.

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It was only then that Hall decided to reveal the ace up his sleeve. In order to conceal the original source of the document, the British foreign office got its hands on a second copy of the Zimmermann Telegram from when it had been transmitted between Washington, D. Claiming they had originally intercepted it in Mexico, they then presented it to the American embassy in London. Woodrow Wilson campaign truck with anti-war slogans. Agreeing that armed neutrality was the only safe policy in the circumstances, Wilson, on February 26, asked Congress for the power to arm merchantmen and take all other steps necessary to protect American commerce.

Jagow had resigned in protest over the proposed resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, and Zimmermann, who was seen as amenable to the policy, was selected to replace him.

What was the Zimmermann Telegram? - HISTORY

Because the British had severed the direct undersea telegraph links between Germany and North America in the earliest days of the war, Germany was forced to route sensitive diplomatic traffic through neutral countries. State Department in Washington, D. The telegram reached the German embassy in Washington on January 19, and it was transmitted to Eckhardt in Mexico later that day.

Unbeknownst to Zimmermann, his message had been intercepted along the way and decoded by the British Admiralty Intelligence, and its contents were communicated to Wilson. Wilson sent a punitive expedition under Gen. Pershing in pursuit of Villa, who then craftily drew Pershing some miles more than km into Mexican territory. Fighting broke out between U. Wilson withdrew all U. Moreover, publication of the telegram in the press on March 1 set off the first nationwide demand for war with Germany.

These events pushed the United States inexorably along the road to war. German submarines sank three U. Supported by his cabinet, by most newspapers, and by a large segment of public opinion , Wilson made the decision for war on March 20, and the following day he called Congress to meet in special session on April 2. He delivered a ringing war message before that body on that date, saying that America would be privileged to give her blood and treasure to make the world safe for democracy. Later that day Wilson signed a resolution recognizing that a state of war existed between the United States and the German Empire.



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