Changes

The '''Zimmermann Telegram''' was a proposal by Germany to Mexico in January 1917 to join [[Germany]] in a war against the United States. The telegram sent from was intercepted by British spies and given to the press by President [[GermanWoodrow Wilson]] . American public opinion was outraged--this was seen as a "casus bellum" (cause for war) and led Congress to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917, bringing the U.S. into [[World War I]]. Relations between the U.S. and Mexico were very bad and there was a risk of war between the two. The telegram was sent by German For­eign Minister [[Arthur Zimmermann]] to the German ambassador to [[Mexico]] on January 19th, 1917; , who carried the telegram proposal to the Mexican government. Mexico realized the proposal would outrage American citizens when its contents were made public make it a satellite of Germany and would lead to quick defeat by President [[Woodrow Wilson]] on March 1the vastly more powerful U.S., 1917, and influenced so it wisely ignored the American decision to declare war on [[Germany]] message and remained neutral in [[the World War I]]. The Zimmermann Telegram (spelled with two n's) is considered one of the worst blunders in diplomatic history.

Between 1914 and the spring of 1917, the European nations engaged in a conflict that became known as Great War (now called "World War I"). While armies battled in 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.

Germany’s resumption use of submarine attacks on submarines to attack British and French passenger ships and merchant [[ship]]s in 1917 freighters led to the sinking of an unarmed French boat, the ''Sussex'', in the English Channel in March 1916, and . Wilson had threatened to sever diplomatic relations with Germany unless the German Government refrained from attacking all passenger ships, and allowed the crews of enemy merchant vessels to escape from their ships prior to any attackinto lifeboats. On May 4, 1916, the German Government had accepted these terms and conditions in what came to be known as the “Sussex pledge.”

By January 1917, however, the situation in Germany had changed. During There seemed a wartime conference that monthvery good chance to win the war. American entry was discounted because the US was already shipping supplies to Britain and France, representatives from and the U.S. had a very small army. The German navy convinced the military leadership German army and [[Kaiser Wilhelm II ]] that a resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare could help defeat Great Britain within five months. German policymakers argued that they could violate the “Sussex pledge,” because the United States could no longer be considered a neutral party after supplying munitions and financial assistance to the Allies. Germany also believed that the United States had jeopardized its neutrality by acquiescing to the Allied blockade of GermanyThe war would be won before American forces could make much difference.

Germany’s civilian Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, protested this decision, as he believed that resuming submarine warfare would draw the United States into the war on behalf of the Allies. This, he argued, would lead to the defeat of Germany. Despite these warnings, However the German Government civilians did not control decision making. The military made the decisions and controlled the Kaiser's thinking. The Kaiser decided to resume unrestricted submarine attacks on all Allied and neutral shipping within prescribed war zones, reckoning that German submarines would end the war long before the first American troopship arrived in Europe. Accordingly, on January 31, 1917, the German Ambassador to the United States, Count Johann von Bernstorff, presented U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing with a note declaring Germany’s intention to restart unrestricted submarine warfare the following day.

Stunned by the news, President Wilson went before Congress on February 3 to announce that he had severed diplomatic relations with Germany. However, he refrained from asking for a declaration of war because he doubted that the American public would support him unless there was ample proof that Germany intended to attack U.S. American ships with no warningactually were sunk. Wilson left open the possibility of negotiating with Germany if its submarines refrained from attacking American shipping. Nevertheless, That soon happened as throughout February and March 1917, German submarines targeted and sunk several unarmed American civilian merchant ships, and many some American passengers and seamen died.

On February 26, Wilson asked Congress for authority to arm American merchant ships with U.S. naval personnel and equipmentguns. While Public opinion strongly supported the measure would probably have passed in a vote, but several anti-war Senators senators led a successful filibuster that consumed the remainder of the Congressional session. Despite the rebuff from CongressThe bill never passed. Regardless, Wilson decided to arm American merchant ships by executive order, claiming that an old anti-piracy law gave him the authority to do so.

[[Image:NYT1Mar1917.jpg|200px|right|thumb|The revealing of the Zimmermann telegram in the ''New York TImesTimes'', March 1, 1917]]

The British had initially not shared the news of the Zimmerman Zimmermann Telegram with U.S. officials, because they did not want the Germans to discover that British code breakers had cracked the German code. However, following Germany’s resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in February, the British decided to use the note to help sway American official and public opinion to join the war. The British finally forwarded the intercept to Wilson on February 24. The American press carried the story the following week.

Despite the shocking news of the Zimmerman Zimmermann Telegram, Wilson still hesitated to ask for a declaration of war. He waited until March 20 before convening a Cabinet meeting to broach the matter--almost a month after he had first seen the telegram. The precise reasons for Wilson’s decision to choose war in 1917 remain the subject of debate among historians, especially in light of his efforts to avoid war in 1915 after the sinking of the British passenger liners Lusitania and Arabic, which had led to the deaths of 131 Americans.

However, by 1917, the continued submarine attacks on American merchant and passenger ships, and the “Zimmerman “Zimmermann Telegram’s” implied threat of a German attack on the United States, had served to sway American public opinion in support of a declaration of war. Furthermore, international law stipulated that the placing of U.S. naval personnel on civilian ships to protect them from German submarines already constituted an act of war against Germany. Finally, the Germans, by their actions, had demonstrated that they had no interest in seeking an end to the conflict (this included Zimmermann's own statement on March 29 confirming he sent it <ref>See [http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/zimmermann_speech.htmZimmermann speech]</ref>). These reasons all contributed to President Wilson’s decision to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. They also encouraged Congress to grant Wilson’s request and formally declare war on Germany.== Bibliography==

* Boghardt, Thomas. "The Zimmermann Telegram: Diplomacy, Intelligence and the American Entry. into World War I." (working paper 2003) [http://cges.georgetown.edu/docs/Docs_Working_Papers_Page/Working_Paper_Boghardt_6-04.pdf online edition]* Beesly, Patrick. ''Room 40: British Naval Intelligence, 1914-18.'' (1982).* Freeman, Peter. "The Zimmermann Telegram Revisited: A Reconciliation of the Primary Sources." ''Cryptologia'' 30, no. 2 (Apr. 2006): 98-150.* Friedman, William F., and Charles J. Mendelsohn. ''The Zimmermann Telegram of January 16, 1917 and Its Cryptographic Background.'' Washington: War Department, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, GPO, 1938, reprinted 1976 and 1994* Katz, Friedrich. ''The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution.'' (1981)* Link, Arthur S. ''Wilson: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace: 1916-1917'' (1965), the standard biography [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=External Linksheb01547.0005.001;rgn=full%20text;view=toc;cc=acls online at ACLS e-books]*Tuchman, Barbara W. ''The Zimmerman Telegram'' (1985) [http://www.firstworldwaramazon.com/sourceZimmermann-Telegram-Barbara-W-Tuchman/zimmermanndp/0345324250/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194646014&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search] ==External links==* [http://intellit.htm Firstworldwarmuskingum.comedu/worldwari_folder/wwizimmermann.html annotated bibliography]

==References==<small><references/></small> {| styleNotes="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''|-!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:|style=" background-color: none;"| <small>This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code<references/small>|-!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| <small>File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwi/82205.htm][http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=60]</small>}}}. |}