This message summarized the Zimmermann Telegram and predicted the sensation it would cause when released to the American public.
In January 1917, British cryptographers had 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.
To protect their intelligence from detection and to capitalize on growing anti-German sentiment in the United States, the British waited to present the telegram to President Wilson. Meanwhile, frustration over the effective British naval blockade caused Germany to break its pledge to limit submarine warfare. In response, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany in February.
On February 24 Britain released the Zimmermann telegram to Wilson, and news of the telegram was published widely in the American press on March 1. On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress formally declared war on Germany and its allies. The Zimmermann telegram clearly had helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history.
