CASE #WE363D · 2 entities · 1 connections

The Zimmermann Telegram

Germany secretly offered to help Mexico reconquer Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico if the U.S. entered World War I — British codebreakers intercepted the message, and it directly helped pull America into the war.

The Zimmermann Telegram was a secret 1917 diplomatic communication from Germany proposing a military alliance with Mexico against the United States, offering German support to help Mexico recover Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. British intelligence intercepted and decoded the message, and its publication significantly helped generate American public support for entering World War I.

✓documented

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Quick facts

→The telegram was sent by German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann on January 16, 1917, to the German ambassador in Mexico.
→It proposed that if the United States entered World War I against Germany, Germany would support Mexico in reconquering Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.
→British code-breakers in a unit known as Room 40 intercepted and decoded the telegram, in what's considered one of the most significant intelligence achievements of the war.
→German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann publicly confirmed the telegram's authenticity in a March 1917 speech, ending speculation it might be a British forgery.

Entities on file

Zimmermann Telegram (document)

1917 German diplomatic telegram proposing an alliance with Mexico against the U.S.; intercepted by British intelligence and confirmed authentic by its own author.

No outgoing connections on file.

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Arthur Zimmermann (person)

German Foreign Secretary who sent the telegram and later publicly confirmed its authenticity.

→ sent and later publicly confirmed the authenticity of → Zimmermann Telegram✓documented

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