March 13, 2004
Title: “Secret Telegram”
Sir Reginald Hall could not believe what he was seeing. This would change everything for sure. First he had be sure that he got it right, then he had to get it to the Americans. Like most people in the British Isles, Reginald wondered why the Americans were still sitting on the sidelines. England, France, Holland, Poland, Russia, indeed all of Europe was involved in a war for its very survival. The Kaiser had ruthlessly attacked Poland, Yugoslavia and invaded France and then began bombing England. And America, which was supposed to be their ally, was sitting back and not doing a darn thing to help. Sir Reginald couldn’t figure out why.
Of course officials in America knew why. Sure, there were some people who wanted to send troops and assist the allies, but there were others who felt that this was not America’s war and we had no business dabbling in it. Oh, we could send some food and ammunition and weapons, but that was about the extent of what we were willing to do. Send troops? Nope! Not this Congress. Not this President. But what Sir Reginald Hall was holding in his hand would change that. Once he got this to the Americans, things would change forever. You see, Sir Reginald Hall was an intelligence officer for the Royal Intelligence Service of Britain. And what he had in his hand was a telegram from Arthur Zimmerman, the German Secretary of State. It was a bombshell and he had to be sure that he decoded it exactly.
But that was his specialty after all. He was a master of encryption. He spent his life encoding messages for the British forces and decoding the intercepted messages they got from the Germans. And boy, did he have one this time! It wasn’t the usual troop movements and plans of attack that he normally saw. This wasn’t about food supplies or fuel or weapons. This was much more than any of that. This telegram was to the German Ambassador of Mexico, and we know the Germans never meant for this one to be seen.
It’s a Little Known Fact that an intercepted encrypted message from the Arthur Zimmerman, the German Secretary of State to the German Ambassador of Mexico revealed a super secret plot hatched by the Germans and the Mexican President. It was a telegram confirming that if America ever entered the war in Europe against Germany, that the Germans would fully back a Mexican invasion of the United States. Support would include weapons, money, German troops and even aircraft. And that telegram so incensed our government that we declared war on Germany just a few weeks later. So, now you really know what really led to our involvement in World War I.
It wasn’t the coaxing from our allies. It was the treachery of German and Mexican politicians. And things did change – forever!
