March 3, 1917: Germany Confesses to Sending the Zimmerman Telegram

March 3, 1917: Germany confesses to sending the Zimmerman Telegram during World War I. Coming clean does not help much. Sending it was a huge mistake: It may have made the difference between winning and losing the war.

As 1917 dawned, the Great War, as it was then known, not only had proven not to be "The War to End All Wars," it had been going on for 2 1/2 years, with no end in sight. All nations involved were exhausted. And, due to the blockade of Britain's Royal Navy, German civilians were starving. The Second Reich had to do something.

They decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1. They believed this would bring America into the war. So they believed that America needed a distraction. On January 16, Arthur Zimmerman, the Staatssekretär of the German Empire, sent a coded message to the German Ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt.

The British intercepted the message, and decoded it on February 19, and showed it to U.S. officials the next day. On February 24, it was shown to President Woodrow Wilson. After considering his options, he published it on March 1. It read:

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 of 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

In other words, if Germany won, it would then fight America on Mexico's side, and give them back much of the territory it lost in the Mexican-American War of 1846-47, pretty much all of it but California.

Mexican President Venustiano Carranza was never going to accept, because he had a civil war going on in his own country. And even if he won, he and his Spanish-speaking, mostly-Catholic government were going to have to govern territory that was fully assimilated into English-speaking, Protestant mainstream America. Instead, he opened talks with the U.S. government, and got recognition of his government on August 31.

On March 3, the German government admitted that the telegram was real. On April 2, Wilson went before Congress, and asked for a Declaration of War against Germany. On April 6, he got it. On March 3, 1918, Russia surrendered to Germany in a separate peace, and Germany could shift its forces to the Western Front. They were perhaps days away from defeating Britain and France, in spite of all the hardships they'd faced. On June 1, American troops began their 1st offensive action, the Battle of Belleau Wood. On November 11, 1918, Germany surrendered.

The Mexican-American War was launched by President James K. Polk. Winning that war and securing that territory, which had been fully 1/3rd of Mexico's land, especially California, was his leading achievement.

He was played by Edwin Stanley in The Monroe Doctrine in 1939, Edward Earle in Can't Help Singing in 1944, Ian Wolfe in California in 1947, and Addison Richards in The Oregon Trail in 1959.

Statue, Columbia, Tennessee

As far as I can tell, there is no high school in America named for Polk. But it was the alma mater of the fictional characters Al and Peg Bundy on the sitcom Married... with Children. The USS President Polk was an attack transport used from 1941 to 1946. The USS James K. Polk was a submarine in service from 1965 to 1999.

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March 3, 1917 was a Saturday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. There was professional hockey: The Montreal Wanderers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-3 at the Montreal Arena; and the Ottawa Senators beat the Quebec Bulldogs, 16-1 at the Ottawa Arena.