The German Telegram That Drew US Into World War I

Engraving of the sinking of the Lusitania after it was torpedoed by a German U-boat during World War I on May 15, 1915. Public Domain

Commentary

In early 1917 the battle line on the Western Front of World War I was in a stalemate of bloody trench combat and Germany was in need of a breakthrough.

Kaiser Wilhelm’s generals had broken the laws of warfare in an attempt to bring France and Britain to their knees. They had introduced poison gas as a weapon against enemy troops and they had launched the first use of aerial bombing of cities far behind the lines. Most controversially, they were considering a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare aimed at cutting the maritime supply routes from North America that kept Britain fed and armed. German U-boats would target any ship, neutral or belligerent, carrying explosives or carrying tourists, which ventured into a zone around the British Isles.

In 1915, the German submarine U-20 sank the unarmed ocean liner RMS Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, killing 1,197 civilians including many Americans. Though the American public opinion was largely in favour of remaining neutral in what they considered a strictly European conflict, the German High Command was convinced that initiating indiscriminate submarine attacks would bring the United States into the war on the side of the Allies. As a consequence, they sought for a way to keep Americans from committing themselves fully to a European war.

The answer seemed to be to encourage a border war between the USA and Mexico, which would pin down much of the American army. To that end, Arthur Zimmermann of the German Foreign Ministry sent a telegram in January 1917 to the German ambassador in Mexico City that he was to convey to the government the following proposition:

Germany’s State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Arthur Zimmermann. Public Domain

“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.”

This ploy made sense. Tensions were high between Mexico and the United States with cross-border incursions undertaken by both sides—the USA had captured the port of Veracruz and Pancho Villa’s raiders had burnt and looted Columbus, New Mexico. German bribes had already been offered to Mexican officials to encourage them to undertake hostilities, and President Venustiano Carranza had committed Mexico to adding German submarines operating in the Gulf of Mexico.

The problem was that British agents, in one of the great intelligence coups of all time, intercepted the message and, thanks to a captured German code book, decrypted the proposal. They wanted to alert the Americans to this act of treachery which would certainly encourage Washington to join the Allies, but they did not want the Germans to know that they had broken their codes or to let the Americans know that they had been tapping their telegraph cables.

It took some time to concoct a cover story that would allow the British government to safely release the contents to the Americans. The British devised a story that they had stolen a copy of the telegram in Mexico and with that tale they revealed the message on Feb. 24. As expected, the American government was outraged and a diplomatic scandal erupted. Pacifists and pro-German sympathizers in the USA claimed that Zimmermann’s message was a British forgery, but that theory became untenable when Zimmermann himself admitted that the telegram was genuine.

With that confession and the German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare, American politicians grew more bellicose. There was also a public uproar. On April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson—who a short time before had campaigned on the slogan “He kept us out of war”—convinced Congress to sanction the country joining the campaign against the German Empire in “a war to end all wars” and “make the world safe for democracy.”

Within a year, a million American troops were in France, dooming the German cause.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.