Conqueror Free Telegram

[Kum Dana]

Thistelegram, written by German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann, is a coded message sent to Mexico, proposing a military alliance against the United States. The obvious threats to the United States contained in the telegram inflamed American public opinion against Germany and helped convince Congress to declare war against Germany in 1917.

Between 1914 and the spring of 1917, the European nations engaged in a conflict that became known as 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.

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. 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. 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." 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 the war, which ended with an armistice, an agreement in which both sides agree to stop fighting, on November 11, 1918.

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"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 or 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.

ULAN BATOR (AFP) - Mongolia celebrated the 800th birthday of epic conqueror Kublai Khan on Wednesday, a source of intense pride in a country trying to highlight its own history after centuries of Russian and Chinese influence.

A week of nationwide celebrations honouring the 13th-century ruler of the largest contiguous land empire in history culminated in Ulan Bator with costumed dancers and musicians performing beneath a giant statue of his grandfather Genghis.

"There was a time when we had to deny our history. However, the new path of democracy Mongolia chose has enabled Mongolian people to restore our history and understand it." The Mongol Empire reached its greatest extent after Kublai conquered China and established the Yuan dynasty in 1271.

After spending most of the 20th century as a satellite of the Soviet Union, which rejected the public honouring of traditional leaders from the pre-Communist era, figures of the Mongol Empire are experiencing a rebirth in popularity.

"Genghis Khan is known as a military leader, but Kublai was a king who organised an enormous kingdom, not only by conquering it, but with administration, politics, trade, diplomacy, science, religion and production," she added.

The site of medieval Xanadu, which ultimately became the summer capital of the Yuan dynasty and is now in China's Inner Mongolia region, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2012 after an application by Beijing.

The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note or Zimmermann Cable) was a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military contract between the German Empire and Mexico if the United States entered World War I against Germany. With Germany's aid, Mexico would recover Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The telegram was intercepted by British intelligence.

Revelation of the contents enraged Americans, especially after German State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Arthur Zimmermann publicly admitted on March 3, 1917, that the telegram was genuine. It helped to generate support for the American declaration of war on Germany in April 1917.[1]

The decryption has been described as the most significant intelligence triumph for Britain during World War I[2] and it marked one of the earliest occasions on which a piece of signal intelligence influenced world events.[3]

The message came in the form of a coded telegram dispatched by Arthur Zimmermann, the Staatssekretr (a top-level civil servant, second only to their respective minister) in the Foreign Office of the German Empire on January 17, 1917. The message was sent to the German ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt.[4] Zimmermann sent the telegram in anticipation of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany on February 1, which the German government presumed would almost certainly lead to war with the United States. The telegram instructed Eckardt that if the United States appeared certain to enter the war, he was to approach the Mexican government with a proposal for military alliance with funding from Germany. The decoded telegram was as follows:[5]

Fr den Fall, da dies nicht gelingen sollte, schlagen wir Mexico mit folgender Grundlage Bndnis vor; Gemeinsame Kriegfhrung, gemeinsamer Friedensschlu. Reichliche finzanzielle Untersttzung und Einverstndnis unsererseits, da Mexiko in Texas, Neu Mexiko, Arizona frher verlorenes Gebiet zurckerobert. Regelung im einzelnen Euer Hochwohlgeboren berlassen.

Euer pp. wollen Vorstehendes Prsidenten streng geheim erffnen, sobald Kriegsausbruch mit Vereinigten Staaten feststeht und Anregung hinzufgen, Japan von sich aus zu fortigem Beitritt einzuladen und gleichzeitig zwischen uns und Japan zu vermitteln.

On February 1 we intend to begin submarinewarfare without restriction. In spite of this it is ourintention to endeavour to keep the United Statesneutral. If this attempt is not successful, we proposean alliance on the following basis with Mexico:

That we shall make war together and togethermake peace; we shall give general financial support,and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquerher lost territory of New Mexico, Texas andArizona. The details are left to you for settlement.

You are instructed to inform the President ofMexico of the above in the greatest confidence assoon as it is certain that there will be an outbreakof war with the United States, and suggest that thePresident of Mexico shall on his own initiative communicatewith Japan suggesting the latter's adherenceat once to this plan, and at the same timeoffer to mediate between Germany and Japan.

Germany had long sought to incite a war between Mexico and the United States, which would have tied down American forces and slowed the export of American arms to the Allies.[7] The Germans had aided in arming Mexico, as shown by the 1914 Ypiranga incident.[8] German Naval Intelligence officer Franz von Rintelen had attempted to incite a war between Mexico and the United States in 1915, giving Victoriano Huerta $12 million for that purpose.[9] The German saboteur Lothar Witzke, who was based in Mexico City, claimed to be responsible for the March 1917 munitions explosion at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in the San Francisco Bay Area,[10] and was possibly responsible for the July 1916 Black Tom explosion in New Jersey.

The German provocations were partially successful. President Woodrow Wilson ordered the military invasion of Veracruz in 1914 in the context of the Ypiranga incident and against the advice of the British government.[12] War was prevented thanks to the Niagara Falls peace conference organized by the ABC nations, but the occupation was a decisive factor in Mexican neutrality in World War I.[13] Mexico refused to participate in the embargo against Germany and granted full guarantees to the German companies for keeping their operations open, specifically in Mexico City.[14]

The Zimmerman Telegram was part of an effort carried out by the Germans to postpone the transportation of supplies and other war materials from the United States to the Allies, which were at war against Germany.[16] The main purpose of the telegram was to make the Mexican government declare war on the United States in hopes of tying down American forces and slowing the export of American arms.[17] The German High Command believed that it could defeat the British and French on the Western Front and strangle Britain with unrestricted submarine warfare before American forces could be trained and shipped to Europe in sufficient numbers to aid the Allies. The Germans were encouraged by their successes on the Eastern Front to believe that they could divert large numbers of troops to the Western Front in support of their goals.[citation needed]

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