Teaching With Documents, Volume 1

Contents:

The Zimmermann Telegram

Historical Background

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, Germany in February 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 her allies.

Reproduced here is a copy of the telegram from Zimmermann to von Eckhardt and a copy of the decoded message. The coded telegram is signed "Bernstorff" because it was transmitted through the United States and Bernstorff was the German ambassador in Washington.

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 telegram reproduced here is from Decimal File 862.20212/82A (1910-1929), and the decoded telegram is from Decimal File 862.20212/69 (1910-1929), General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59.

Teaching Suggestions

1. Decoding a message: In this exercise, students decode a fictitious message using a simple substitution code. In substitution codes, the letters of the plaintext (message to be put into secret form) are replaced by other letters, numbers, or symbols. In this code system, each letter in the alphabet and each of the numbers from 1 to 9 appears in the matrix of the grid. Each letter in the grid is replaced by two letters in the coded message. The first letter in the message is from the vertical axis of the grid, and the second letter is from its horizontal axis. For example, if "DG" were the first two letters to decipher in a cryptogram, you would find the letter "D" on the vertical axis and the letter "G" on the horizontalaxis. Trace them across the grid to their intersection at the letter "A" in the plaintext.


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To decode the fictitious message, students should begin by grouping each set of two letters starting with the first two letters (FG) and continuing through the message. The code letters are arbitrarily arranged in groups of five letters. Some letter pairs will carry over from one line to the next, As students locate each letter in the grid, they should write that letter above the pair of code letters to which it corresponds. There are no punctuation marks in the telegram, so students may need some direction in clarifying the message.

As homework, students can be asked to write a message using the code, and then exchange the messages for decoding.

Decoded Message:

February 22, 1917
To: von Eckhardt
Mexico City
British crack top secret code. U.S. press may leak German plot with Mexico. Prepare to leave embassy on short notice.
Bernstorff
Washington, D.C.

2. The Zimmermann telegram provides an opportunity to review geography with your students. Ask them to locate England, Germany, Mexico, and Japan on a world map or globe. Direct students to indicate on the map or globe the territory offered by the Germans to the Mexicans in the telegram. Ask them to calculate how much the territory offered to Mexico would increase the size of that country. What geographical advantages would the Germans gain by Mexican entry into the war? What was the role of Japan?

3. Discussion questions:

a. What other documents have changed the course of American history? For example, consider the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Monroe Doctrine, and the DeLôme Letter.

b. What events in 1916 and 1917 contributed to the impact the Zimmermann telegram would have on the American public?

c. Would the United States have remained neutral if the Zimmermann telegram had not been revealed?

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Chicago: "The Zimmermann Telegram," Teaching With Documents, Volume 1 in Teaching With Documents: Using Primary Sources from the National Archives, ed. United States. National Archives and Records Administration and National Council for the Social Studies (Washington, D.C.: National Archives Trust Fund Board, 1989), 94–98. Original Sources, accessed March 29, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=3FU1BFT89JIZZ78.

MLA: . "The Zimmermann Telegram." Teaching With Documents, Volume 1, in Teaching With Documents: Using Primary Sources from the National Archives, edited by United States. National Archives and Records Administration and National Council for the Social Studies, Vol. 1, Washington, D.C., National Archives Trust Fund Board, 1989, pp. 94–98. Original Sources. 29 Mar. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=3FU1BFT89JIZZ78.

Harvard: , 'The Zimmermann Telegram' in Teaching With Documents, Volume 1. cited in 1989, Teaching With Documents: Using Primary Sources from the National Archives, ed. , National Archives Trust Fund Board, Washington, D.C., pp.94–98. Original Sources, retrieved 29 March 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=3FU1BFT89JIZZ78.