Mexico Plots Against America

Sayville was used as a nest for spies during WW I. Germany promised Mexico that if they entered the war, they could steal their ultimate prize: The American southwest. The Sayville Wireless Station run by the Germans was sending messages to Mexico promising to give them help in taking over California.

The Mexicans acted with treachery with the Germans. The Germans wanted out country out of the war, but the Mexicans actually wanted to TAKEOVER our country!

Below is the Zimmerman Note

To the German Minister to Mexico

Berlin, January 19, 1917

On the first of February we intend to begin submarine warfare unrestricted.  In spite of this, it is our intention to endeavour to keep neutral the United States of America.

If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the following basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and together make peace.  We shall give general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona.  The details are left to you for settlement...

You are instructed to inform the President of Mexico of the above in the greatest confidence as soon as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war with the United States and suggest that the President of Mexico, on his own initiative, should communicate with Japan suggesting adherence at once to this plan; at the same time, offer to mediate between Germany and Japan.

Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel England to make peace in a few months.

Zimmerman
(Secretary of State)

  A picture of the German Foreign Secretary

However Zimmerman is best-known as the author of the infamous 'Zimmerman Telegram' sent to the German Embassy in Mexico on 19 January 1917.  The encrypted telegram to von Eckhardt in Mexico effectively comprised an offer of German support for a Mexican invasion of the U.S.  The thinking behind the telegram suggested that the U.S. would find itself too concerned with fighting a war with Mexico at home to direct its energies to the conflict in Europe.

Zimmerman himself chose 'retirement' in August 1917.  He died in 1940.

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, in February Germany 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 Zimmerman 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 its allies.