The Zimmerman Telegram - Germany Begins Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

United States Adopts a Policy of "Armed Neutrality," Germans Sink 7,000 Vessels

Germany, with feverish speed, had been multiplying her fleets of submarines, with the secret intention of destroying the ships of all nations that sailed the seas. Especially the Huns hoped to isolate England from her sources of food supply and starve her into submission. On January 31, 1917, Count von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador to the United States, notified this Government that on the following day, February 1, 1917, Germany would inaugurate a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

A zone had been drawn around the British Isles, also along the coast of France, and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. One channel, leading through the Dardanelles to Constantinople, had been excepted. All enemy ships of any character that entered this zone, whether merchant marine, passenger, or battleships, and all neutral vessels suspected of carrying contraband goods, were to be sunk without warning.

There was to be no distinction made between the ships of enemy nations and those of neutrals. No assurance was given that innocent passengers and seamen on board these vessels would be rescued. Germany had reverted to the practice of black piracy, putting to the blush the classic operations of the Algerian and Spanish buccaneers.

United States Breaks with Germany

President Wilson, who had shown the Huns every consideration since the sinking of the Lusitania and the Sussex, at once took the suitable action which resulted in America's participation in the War. In a message to Congress, received on February 26, 1917, the President' proposed a policy of "armed neutrality," asking authority of Congress to arm American ships for defense, while expressing the hope that "it would not be necessary to put forces anywhere into action."

Twelve United States Senators, by their votes, prevented the passage of an act of authorization before Congress was prorogued on March 4, 1917. The P...

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.

The coded telegram is from Decimal File 862.20212/82A (1910-1929), and the decoded telegram below is from Decimal File 862.20212/69 (1910-1929)...