Posted on 04/17/2006 1:20:42 PM PDT by First_Salute
Two separate backgrounds ---
Teaching With Documents: The Zimmermann Telegram - Background (archives.gov)
Between 1914 and the spring of 1917, the European nations engaged in a conflict that became known as World War I. While armies moved across the face of Europe, the United States remained neutral. In 1916 Woodrow Wilson was elected President for a second term, largely because of the slogan "He kept us out of war." Events in early 1917 would change that hope. In frustration over the effective British naval blockade, in February Germany broke its pledge to limit submarine warfare. In response to the breaking of the Sussex pledge, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany.
In January of 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. This message helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history. The telegram had such an impact on American opinion that, according to David Kahn, author of The Codebreakers, "No other single cryptanalysis has had such enormous consequences." It is his opinion that "never before or since has so much turned upon the solution of a secret message." In an effort to protect their intelligence from detection and to capitalize on growing anti-German sentiment in the United States, the British waited until February 24 to present the telegram to Woodrow Wilson. The American press published news of the telegram on March 1. On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress formally declared war on Germany and its allies.
The story of British intelligence efforts to decipher the German code is fascinating and complicated. The Zimmermann Telegram by Barbara Tuchman recounts that story in all of its exciting detail. It is an excellent historical account for high school students.
Background to the Telegram (answers.com)
Germany had been pursuing various interests in Mexico from the beginning of the 20th century. Although a latecomer in the area, with Spain, Britain, and France having established themselves there centuries earlier, the Kaiser's Germany too attempted to secure a continuing presence. This entailed many different approaches to the Mexican Republic and its changing, often revolutionary governments as well as, if not always, assuring the United States of Germany's peaceful intentions. German diplomacy in that area depended on sympathetic relations with the Mexican government of the day. During Arthur Zimmermann's period in office, among the options discussed, Germany offered to improve communications between the two nations and suggested that Mexico purchase German submarines for its navy.
After Francisco Villa's cross-border raids into New Mexico, President Wilson sent a punitive expedition into Mexico to pursue the raiders. It was then, that the Germans were encouraged to believe (mistakenly) that this and other concerns in the area, would tie up US resources and military operations for some time to come, sufficiently to justify the overtures made by Arthur Zimmermann in the telegram to the Venustiano Carranza government. The proposals included an agreement for a German alliance with Mexico, while Germany would still try to maintain a state of neutrality with the United States. If this policy were to fail, the note suggested, the Mexican government should make common cause with Germany, try to persuade the Japanese government to join the new alliance, and attack the US. Germany on its part would promise financial assistance and the restoration of its former territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico.
Of course during this time Mexico was caught up in it's own struggle for survival, their Revolution War, the peasants uprising. If the Zimmerman note was to the German Ambassador, surely he was hoping for the Federalists soldiers to bring some pressure on the border. It always amazed me why there were so many Air Force bases built along the Mexican border. Think of it.
There is a school of thought that the Zimmerman Telegram was an artiface concocted by British Intelligence to convince the Wilson Administration to side with Britian.
Mexico remains in a state of revolution from which a significant portion of its people now flee, motivated and/or stirred by a variety of economic, political, and social forces internal and external, and the:
"promise [of] financial assistance and the restoration of its former territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico."
More days per year of good flying weather, I suppose. It could be that simple.
I have heard similar theories as well.
No, the Zimmerman telegram was real, but it wasn't the deciding factor in entering the war.
The British and French owed US interests Billions at a time when a Billion dollars was a huge amount of money.
Wilson was told privately in early 1917 that part of the French army was in revolt. They were refusing offensive operations. You can't blame them, they were tired of charging machine guns.
America's economic interests were clearly invested with the allies; if they went down, so would a number of important US banks.
After he was safely reelected Wilson believed there was no real choice left him; especially with the resumption of German unlimited submarine warfair in early 1917.
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