I'll be writing a number of blog entries related to the 100th anniversary of the American participation in World War I. We'll start at the logical place - with the Zimmermann Telegram.
16 January 1917 The Germans send the Zimmermann Telegram from Berlin to the German Ambassador to the United States, Count Johann von Bernstorff via the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. (Yes, the Americans sent the actual telegram from Berlin to Washington. How ironic.) The telegram apparently also goes via wireless from the German radio transmitter at Nauen outside of Berlin to the American receiving station at Sayville, Long Island, NY (although William Friedman and Charles Mendelsohn, in their monograph on the Zimmermann telegram dispute this), and also via the Swedish government to South America and thence to Washington. It is intercepted via all three routes by the British. When decrypted, the telegram reads:
"We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. 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. The settlement in detail is left to you. 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. 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." Signed, ZIMMERMANN.
