The Zimmerman Telegram: Scheming Against The United States

The zimmerman telegram was a letter sent in 1917 from zimmerman who was the foreign minister of germany. the note contained information to ''proposed alliance aganinst america''. germany hopped that mexico would join them in their war againist america. The note also stated that if mexico joins the war againist america ''they would be rewarded with financial; support and reconqured land in new mexico, texas, and arizona. when america recived news about this note, they reacted strongy because germany was trying to get other countries to join the war againist them and they also treathen to take some of america's land and give it to the mexicans.

In the World War I exhibit, there was a section about America selling to the allies different materials but remaining neutral in the war until the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmerman telegram. We learned about this in AP European History before, but mostly just a brief overview as we focused more on how the Europeans were impacted by these events. The exhibit informed me more on how there was a Mexican border conflict that heightened the tension and made it more impactful when the Zimmermann telegram was intercepted. We had learned that the Zimmerman telegram had an impact on america joining the war, and it was interesting to get more background about it. In the future, I would like to learn more about the espionage and sedition acts

Gen.   John J. Pershing   , a veteran of the Spanish-American War, commanded the AEF. The U.S. was far from prepared to send an army to the European front

The American Revolution saw the rise of the American spy, and the father of these spies was George Washington, commander in Chief of the Continental Army. The siege of New York demonstrated the importance and dire need for an intelligence to General Washington. Unfortunately, the difficulty, at least initially, lay with finding people willing and able to serve in this manner.

All through the first three years, the Germans would use submarines to sink ships, often these were civilian ships with American citizens aboard. These actions began to change the public opinion about getting into the war. The last straw however was the Zimmerman telegram, a telegram from the German government to the Mexican government, encouraging Mexico to invade the US, in exchange, recouping some of the lost southwestern states(Shi, p. 826).

On April 2, 1917 the United States entered WWI declaring war against Germany and its allies. The deciding factor for the U.S. to enter the war is due to one document, the Zimmerman Telegram. The document was sole proof to many Americans that Germany’s intentions were not only causing harm on European soil but bringing it across the seas to American soil. It stated that Germany had no intentions on slowing down its submarine warfare to which they hoped to keep the Americans neutral, but if they failed in doing so they offered an alliance among themselves and Mexico. The understanding was that Mexico would declare war on the United States and help the Germans and in return they would receive their land they had lost to America in years past,

In McCarthy‘s initial telegram to Truman, he claims that the White House contains Communist sympathizers and spies, and that if he doesn‘t release the information related to them, he will be labeled as a traitorous sympathizers to the public. Truman‘s unsent response gives a sharp, precise shutdown to the senator, claiming that the state he is the senator of should be embarrassed because of him.

The Zimmerman telegraph was sent by the German foreign secretary of State, Arthur Zimmerman. It proposed a German-Mexican

During the 1920s, the United States was forced into war by the Germans. Germany, attacking and violating with the use of submarines, gave President Woodrow Wilson, who was president during World War I, no other option but to go into war. “We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other means of defending our rights.” (Wilson, 1917). He was a neutral person. Even though he wanted

Soviet leaders probably did not enjoy reading George Kennan’s famous “Long Telegram,” abbreviated LT for short. A 1946 State Department cable sent from the American embassy in Moscow to Washington, D.C., the LT provided the intellectual foundations for the U.S. policy of containment. Although containment did not necessarily advise officials to eradicate communism’s existing footholds, the policy did make the Cold War “hot” in many countries in an attempt to stop communism’s spread – Vietnam (1965 – 1973), Korea (1950 – 1953), and Greece (1946 – 1949), to name a few. Somewhat less importantly from a policy standpoint (but arguably more so for the individual kingpins within Russia), the LT attacked the USSR’s leaders on a personal level, calling

then increased trade with the Allies, Britain and France, which gave them closer ties with the Allies forces. Secondly, the German navy launched a U-boat submarine, which torpedoed the British luxury liner Lusitania and killed 128 Americans in the process. Next, the U.S. intercepted a telegram in which Germany’s foreign secretary sent to the German minister in Mexico City. The telegram was urging Mexico to join the Central Powers in the war, and Germany promised to help Mexico recover Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in return. This threatened the territorial integrity of the U.S. The final reason for U.S. involvement in the war was when U-boats started attacking American ships without warning. This forced President Wilson to ask for a declaration of war before a special session of Congress.

The brutal acts the Germans were doing to innocent Americans put pressure on the President. Therefore President Wilson met with American citizens and discussed going to war with Germany and the price Americans would pay. In his speech he said, “There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight and there is such a thing as a nation being so right it does not need to convince people by force what is right.” The speech didn’t matter America wanted justiced.

By January 1917 representatives from the German navy convinced the military leadership 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 was not being neutral (Office of the Historian). In January of 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to Mexico, offering United States’ territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause (Childress). Accordingly, on January 31, 1917, the German Ambassador, 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 (Office of the Historian). Throughout February and March 1917, German submarines targeted and sunk several American ships, and many American passengers and seamen died (Office of the Historian). On February 26, Wilson asked Congress for authority to arm American merchant ships with U.S. naval personnel and equipment.

The United States entered World War I because of German submarine warfare against merchant ships trading with Britain and France, which led to the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in which 128 American lives were lost. [3] The US had also intercepted the Zimmerman Telegram which had been sent between Germany and Mexico, urging Mexico to declare war against the United States. [4]

On January 9th, 1917 a message was sent from Germany to the German minister in Mexico. This message, later to be known as the Zimmermann Telegram was the final piece to a German plot to embroil the United States into a war with Mexico, Japan or both in order to cripple Allied supply lines fueling Allied operations in Europe.