The Zimmermann Telegram

AMAZING ACCOUNT OF THE US ENTRY INTO WW1
TO THIS DAY UNKNOWN FACTORS HAVING PUSHED WILSON INTO IT
BARBARA TUCHMAN WRITING PACKS POWER AND STUNNING AMOUNTS OF INFORMATION AND RESEARCH

IN A WORD TUCHMAN WHEN IT ROCKS!

Historically significant. Tuchman's style is in very formal English. Her personal history of exclusive private schools and upper class living are reflectived in the writing. Have a dictionary as you read this book.

Tuchman can write. She has great turns of phrase and the story is stranger than fiction. The parts I enjoyed the most were the somersaults the British Office of Naval Intelligence did to get the telegram into American hands without divulging the fact that the British had cracked the German diplomatic code. Also the idea that the Mexican government would seriously entertain the thought of invading California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas to recover lost territory is so patently dufus to us at this point in time is scary. It's true. Substitute the NSA, Julian Assange, Russian meddling in our election and you get current events that at least rhyme if not repeat history. A good side story is Tuchman's characterization of Wilson at this point in history. The great powers of Europe couldn't get past his acting like a school principal trying to get the students to just stop fighting and sit down and behave.

I came to learn about the Zimmerman Telegram in a sort of backward way; I learned about it in a German history class at school.

It was interesting but not until I saw that there was a Barbara Tuchman book (author of "The Guns of August") did I decide to dive in a little deeper.

You will be intrigued and find that even though the main subject of the book is the Zimmerman Telegram that it is the various people involved that makes the story come to life.

"The Americans were always calling upon the Munro doctrine as if it was some sort of covenant established by God, giving them rights over the rest of the hemisphere. Wilhelm believed that if God were going to play favorites He would choose Germany."

This is an excellent account of the story behind the German attempt to embroil Mexico and Japan into war with the United States in 1917. The net result was that the United States entered WWI, even though President Wilson did not want war. It is likely the U.S. would have eventually joined the Allies; but, there would have been considerable delay.

The Zimmerman Telegram promised Mexico Texas, Arizona and New Mexico if Mexico declare war on the United States if it joined the Allies in WWI. The British had intercepted the telegram and decoded it. They brilliantly managed disclosure to the US, without alerting the Germans that the German codes were compromised.

The book shows the competence of the British in terms of intelligence and code breaking, that was to be repeated in WWII. Also, the blindness of the Germans toward the possibilities that their codes could be compromised, was again repeated in WWII. Much stupider, German foreign minister Zimmerman confirmed the validity of the telegram, when there was considerable American belief that it was a British trick.

Also, the Germans were pretty delusional to think that Mexico would go to war with the U.S. It was less than seventy years since Mexico had suffered catastrophic loses in war with the U.S. In 1917 the Mexicans were relatively much weaker than in the 1840s. Japan was actually allied with Great Britain and at war with Germany. Although there was anti-American feeling in both countries; the possibility that either country would declare war on the US was minuscule.

Listened to the audio book.

“Had the telegram never been intercepted or never been published, inevitably the Germans would have done something else that would have brought us in eventually. But the time was already late and, had we delayed much longer, the Allies might have been forced to negotiate.”

Barbara Tuchman has written a book about what finally drove America into the Great War. It was a simple telegram from the German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman to the German Ambassador to Mexico Heinrich von Eckardt in 1917.

Woodrow Wilson was determined not to go to War in Europe. His advisor Colonel House was negotiating secretly with both sides to find a peaceful solution. Trouble was that the Germans were using House to get their coded messages diplomatic immunity that went out directly through the State Department. The United States government was really proven reckless and naïve in their pursuit for peace.

The British, who had the German codebook since almost day one of the conflict, but did not want that fact to come out or they would have to start all over, decoded the telegram itself. The question was how to tell the United States what was in the telegram without giving away how they received the information.

This book does not go into cryptology and the like, that is better done in other books. This book gives the history of the time and the final straw that finally got the United States in the First World War.

The telegram stated that Germany wanted Mexico to join forces with them and Japan and invade the United States, taking back the part of the country (Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico) that was once theirs. Germany felt that the United States would be caught off guard and not ready for war for at least 6 months. The Germans also wanted to begin unlimited use of their U-boats.

When the telegram was first released to the American public, many thought it was a forgery and a fraud. However, Zimmerman concluded that they would be able to produce it and admitted that the telegram was correctly decoded. In addition, the United States was angry enough to battle a common enemy and the British and French had renewed hope.

That is the importance of the Zimmerman Telegram. I know I was never taught this fact in school and I hope that it is now part of the curriculum. It is a well-written account of the background of the various governments involved. One surprise I had was the conflict we originally had in Mexico was due to a lack of protocol. The President of the United States would fight Mexico because someone forgot to salute, but refused to enter the War in Europe, because of German sympathies. Wilson said that it was important for the “White man” to maintain world control. That kind of racist mentality, even in historical content turns my stomach.
This is an excellent book on the subject and I highly recommend it. Barbara Tuchman is one of my favorite historians.

The theme requires a lot of research and Tuchman did a very thorough job. In the book she made it clear that some rumors were unsubstantiated some are facts. Her descriptions of the events in Mexico, US, Germany and UK were very detailed. It is baffling to learn that Wilson, US president, was so meek and peace loving. Compared with today's US the then USA was very meek and indecisive. However, if you want to get the most out of the book, get a pen and jot the names down to make a reference to who is who. Otherwise you will get lost of who the characters were.

Tuchman scores again with this readable, engaging account of how the Zimmerman telegram affected US foreign policy during WWI. It's short and focused, making it a great summer read for a history buff. She displays her usual eye for personality and other bits of color that make this period of history come to life.

Inherent in this story are several implicit ironies. The British were secretly reading messages on a neutral channel going through the USA, which the Allies wanted to join the war. The USA, for its part, was allowing the Germans to use a neutral communication channel. The Germans, who were supposed to use this channel for faster communication regarding peace proposals, used it to set up an attack strategy should the USA become involved in the war. Japan, ostensibly on the Allied side, was possibly keeping its options open should an attack on the USA become feasible. Everyone was stabbing each other in the back, in spite of the usual face-to-face decorum of diplomatic courtesy and protocol.

The implications of the fact that the Wilson administration was allowing a combatant to use a neutral diplomatic channel is not explored fully by Tuchman, although she describes how the actual source was kept from the public for secrecy reasons. If this fact had become public, it may have been as shocking to Americans as the telegram itself. The moral and diplomatic standing of the USA was certainly complicated, if not compromised, by this. Tuchman seems to miss this point.

As usual, Tuchman tries to balance her account with tidbits from "the other side" (primarily Germany and Mexico). Yet, a longer, more in-depth treatment would have gone into the Japanese side more conclusively. Also, Tuchman may being seeing WWI through the lens of WWII: the Germans are arrogant, the Japanese are sneaky. But what would the Japanese have gained from such an attack, exactly? Is there anything in the Japanese archives that can shed light on this? These should have been available after WWII. Instead, we hear about the Japanese from second-hand sources, it seems. The Germans admitted that the telegram was true and real; she chalks this blunder up to typical German arrogance, but the fact that the unrestricted U-boat campaign was starting may have made the niceties surrounding the telegram moot from a German perspective. If any blunder was committed by Germany, it may not have been in putting the proposal down in writing; rather, it may have been in making wrong assumptions about Mexico (which chose to stay neutral), Japan (which stayed with the Allies), and the USA (which always has plenty of gumption when poked and, in this case, joined the war against Germany). If there was arrogance here, it was in assuming that the rest of the world would accord to Germany's view of it. If this was what Tuchman meant by German arrogance, I would have liked to have seen her work a little harder it.

Nevertheless, she gets into Wilson's thinking admirably, and the effect of the telegram on his idealistic, pacifistic thinking. The telegram brought the threat of war to American borders, and thereby home to the American public.

Reading Dead Wake dovetailed with my current immersion in World War I and led me to dust off my 1979 (!) copy of this penetrating study of what really happened when Germany tried to seduce Mexico into joining the war against the hated gringos. Ms. Tuchman stands on the podium of brilliant narrative historians, along with Simon Schama and Rick Atkinson. Her work not only illuminates how British spies intercepted and verified the German telegram to the consul in Mexico and also arranged for it to be ‘re-intercepted’ by the US so as to deflect that the British were reading everything the Germans wrote, but also how Japan itself was flirting with Carranza to establish a port and military base in Baja California. To this she adds insight into how badly President Wilson bungled relations with Mexico, from the naval occupation of Vera Cruz to the fruitless search for Pancho Villa. This is a brilliant book. Period. - See more at: http://jwlbooks.com/jack-london-reviews/hammock-days/#sthash.09YvIziu.dpuf

Ms. Tuchman wrote "The Guns of August" which I believe is the best book ever written about WWI. Unfortunately, she also wrote the book, "The Proud Tower" about the times just before WWI. The Proud Tower was a bore. As such, I wasn't sure what to think before I bought this one. I was hopeful that it might be good and, I was right. The Zimmerman Telegraph is a very good book which, if you like history and mystery, you should enjoy. The Zimmerman Telegraph was especially interesting to me because, while I was in school, I had a professor who taught his belief that the Zimmerman Telegraph was a fraud. It was not. The Zimmerman telegaph was very real and with it the British may have changed the tides of history. .
But first, what is the Zimmerman telegraph? Mr. Zimmerman was a German ambassador during WWI. As the war progressed, both sides looked for allies which would tip the scales in the war in Europe. Mr. Zimmerman, and his cohorts, were instructed to induce Mexico into fighting on the German side, if American declared for the allies.
Because General Pershing, who was to lead the Amercian troops in Europe, had invaded Mexico during this time (to attack a bandit revolutionary Pancho Villa); Because America had taken about 1/3 of Mexico eighty years earlier; And because America's army was one of the smallest in the world - Mexico's entry into the war seem possible to German leaders 5000 miles away.
Mr. Zimmerman, in secret code, wired back and forth to Germany to learn what he should do, and what he should offer. Worse, at times, the Germanys borrowed American supplies, while negotiating about declaring war on America. The British learned about these messages and wanted to share them with the Americans. But how could they do it, without arrising their suspicions and those of later American professors?
The truth is an exciting mystery story filled with real people whom we love and hate, because Ms. Tuchman makes them so real. She has a talent, when applied, which makes the past - present. I could picture these events as they happened, understand the people, and even sympathize with the ones I didn't like before I read this book.
The other thing Ms. Tuchman does so well is to explain motivations. In Europe, for example, there was disputed land between Germany and France. This land was take in 1870. In 1914, the shame of this action still was present throughout France. Indeed, in many units, it was a battlecry. Surely some Mexicans felt the same about California? Ms. Tuchman shows us why some people felt that a Germany-Mexican alliance was a good thing. And a thing which the Mexicans would want.
There is much more that this book discusses. But, as referenced above, this book is mainly about how the British broke the German codes and how they "leaked" this information to the Americans. War is never fought for one reason. But the main reason America fought in WWI may have been this telegram - and the Germany-Mexican alliance it proposed. A masterful job by Ms. Tuchman.

History wasn't supposed to be this readable in 1958, but when Barbara Tuchman published "The Zimmermann Telegram" it was not only an advancement of scholarship about the roots of World War I but a terrific example of how real life could work better than fiction when in the right hands.

The book covers what is still often wrongly described as a minor episode. As Tuchman explains, this served as the World War I equivalent of Pearl Harbor, an overture by Imperial Germany intercepted by England inviting Mexico to join the Axis and attack the United States as a means of keeping U.S. troops from refreshing the Allied cause in Europe. When a copy of the telegram was delivered to President Woodrow Wilson, it shook him from his studied neutrality and brought about the American entry into the war, essentially turning a European struggle into a global one.

I once worked with a guy at a newspaper who told me Tuchman couldn't be trusted because she was anti-German. Frankly, it's hard to write a fair history of either World War that doesn't come down hard on Germany in some way, though Tuchman pulls no punches. According to her book, not only did Zimmermann (the German foreign minister whose appointment was ironically welcomed by Washington because he was seen as a liberal) offer Mexico three of its former territories, New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona, in exchange for a sudden attack on the United States, he didn't even wait for the United States to declare war on Germany first in response to the unrestricted submarine offensive Germany planned to launch. Then, when the press got hold of the telegram, Zimmermann didn't deny it was his because he still held out hope the Mexicans might launch an offensive across the Rio Grande.

Well, of course, I can hear that guy back in my old office saying, we were giving England and France the supplies with which to fight Germany. Why shouldn't Germany do what it could to stop that? However in keeping with the nation that coined the term "realpolitik," it amounted to a fatal miscalculation, marked by the German hubris of sending its fatal telegram on a special line the U.S. let them use for the purpose of helping negotiate a European peace. Like the Japanese ambassadors a war later, the Germans kept up the pretence of peace talks while planning their sucker punch, though the Japanese stopped short of actually using the diplomacy itself to sow the seed for U.S. destruction.

Tuchman's thesis in short puts a different construct on the popular historic view of World War I as a war we didn't need to get involved in. Yet she isn't a conservative, instead taking all parties to task in a critical, engaging way many historians to come would emulate with far less success. About Wilson, she writes: "He held political office and would not acknowledge that politics is the art of the possible. He obeyed the injunction that a man's reach should exceed his grasp; it was his tragedy that he reached too high."

Tuchman on the other hand reaches just high enough, giving you all the period detail and flavor of the time in a lean 200-page package that will likely leave you curious to read her later masterpiece on World War I's origins, "The Guns Of August."

In forceful, confident prose Ms. Tuchman describes an incident in U.S. history which, if not forgotten, is probably not sufficiently appreciated for its current relevance. President Wilson labored hard to avoid U.S. entry into the Great War; his aim, even on the eve of U.S. involvement, was to win the peace by making himself available to both sides as the honest broker. His efforts to remain neutral had its critics, notably Theodore Roosevelt, but by and large his position mirrored that of the public at large. One critical factor that helped move Wilson from neutrality to belligerence was the uncovering, by British intelligence, of the Zimmerman telegram. That telegram revealed Germany's attempts to forge an alliance with Mexico and thus distract the U.S. from the European theatre. In return, and upon a "certain" German victory, Mexico was promised the restoration of its former holdings -- Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. While the telegram was a factor in Wilson's volte face, it was by far the most important factor in the creation of a popular, pre-war sentiment in the U.S. electorate.
Why relevant? Wilson's decision to enter the war was delayed until that point in time when empirical data compelled him to abandon neutrality. In contrast, President Bush invaded Iraq on the presumption, based on intelligence, that WMD would be uncovered. Was Wilson right? Perhaps not. He may well have waited too long. Was Bush wrong? Perhaps not, given the behavior of Saddam Hussein with respect to inspections prior to the war. The Zimmerman telegram is not a "morality tale," but it constitutes a fascinating case study on the interplay between data and decision-making at the highest levels of government.

This book is history at its very best. Tuchman has brought to life an amazing story of espionage and deceit that reads like an Ian Fleming novel. Her fluid writing style keeps you turning the pages. Although the outcome is known, the reader still finds themselves asking what will happen.
The book covers Germany's pre-war intrigues in Mexico, and then once the war starts, follows the agents sent to America to keep us out of the war. She discusses how German spies plotted to take over munitions factories and stop the flow of war goods to the Allies...and how they nearly succeeded. The story also discusses how Wilson was tormented by the decision to bring America into the war, and how he really did wish peace for the world. Yet, when confronted with the Zimmerman Telegram, which offered Mexico the reacquisition of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, Wilson was left with no choice but war.
It is incredible at how a blunder by one German official was able to bring the world's most powerful nation into the fold against them. Yet that stays with the theme of WW I, and the Zimmerman Telegram may have been the biggest blunder of the war. Thanks to Barbara Tuchman, we know how it all came to pass.

Historian Barbara Tuchman tells the full story of the Zimmerman Telegram in gripping detail. As many know, this note was sent by the German foreign minister to Mexico at the height of World War I. Germany hoped to spur increased conflict between the USA and Mexico, and thus keep America's industrial might from joining the Allies. But Zimmerman's note was intercepted by British intelligence, which quickly decoded it. Then as the author shows, Britain held on to it and waited to release their discovery at the right moment. That moment came in early 1917 as Germany announced it was resuming unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic. The effect in the USA was electric, and it spurred President Woodrow Wilson, a near-pacifist, to ask Congress to declare war on Germany.

Historian Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989) was a talented popular historian with a nicely readable style. This 1958 book is not that long in pages, but it's great for information, tension, and history.

I approached this as a general reader in search of a good read, not as a historian. It was a good read, and I learned much more about a piece of our history that I last studied nearly 30 years ago. Tuchman writes with urgency and though her work is well documented, her narrative is never bogged down by wavering, stuttering scholarspeak or footnotes that lie like logs and potholes on the way to the next sentence. Some may argue her premise, that the revelation of the Zimmerman telegraph was the one motivator that would compel Wilson to finally send American troops into World War I combat, but Tuchman makes a persuasive case. Her strengths beyond a capable writing style lie in character development of the players on two sides of the Atlantic and an ability to track all of their movements with clarity as they converge on the fateful entrance of the US into the conflict. In reading this, I was reminded that our contemporary Congress is not unique in its image-conscious, bull-headed, snappish judgment. I was especially taken by what is obviously a legacy of the Civil War, the deep-rooted American fear of conflict on its own soil.

I've first learned of the Zimmermann Telegram from "The Code Book" by Simon Singh (highly recommended itself), and looked for more information on the story; Barbara Tuchman's "The Zimmerman Telegram" filled in the details splendidly. The buildup is suspenseful, the characters are colorfully drawn, and the settings are well detailed. Tuchman skillfully puts the reader in the minds of those involved, allowing you to understand their mindset and identify with their emotions. This is indeed much closer to a mystery novel than to a regular history book, and it is a better read for it.

There are a few small things I felt that marred full enjoyment. These are minor issues indeed, but worth noting. The first is that while most of the book reads as a Novel, as I've mentioned above, in a few occasions it feels as though you can feel Tuchman's voice herself giving her personal opinion (as an historian) on characters in the story. This is not a problem in and of itself, but it doesn't fit with the general mood of the book, so it seems out of place. Another point is that a few important issues were not sufficiently detailed (at least in my view): For instance, the agreement between the US and Germany about the surfacing of submarines is only hinted at, but it itself is never mentioned, which seems important, because the book skips between the conditions that existed before and after the agreement, and this can cause confusion at times. Or, as another example, one of the biggest questions (again, to me) that is hardly touched is why Zimmerman confirmed he sent the telegram after it was made public - surely this was the action that made war impossible to avoid.

All in all, however, these small issues do not diminish the book in any great manner, and it still remains a superb account of one of the most pivotal, yet little known events of the 20th century. Highly recommended!

What I like best about Barbara Tuchman as a history writer is the sense of humor and amazement that you can hear in her writing as she talks about the foibles of history and its dramatis personae. I do not like The Zimmerman Telegram as much as I like its big brother, The Guns of August. It is a dense treatment of a pivotal incident relating to the Great War, rather than a larger treatment of the conflict itself. This doesn't make it bad, but I was glad that I read The Zimmermann Telegram after having read Guns of August.

The Zimmerman telegram was one of the instruments that contributed to bringing the US into the Great War. Tuchman focuses on the events that led up to the fateful telegram and touches on relevant issues such as Mexican politics, code-breaking, and US neutrality.

Recommended.

This is one of my favorite Barbara Tuchman works. It is the story of the Zimmermann Telegram, a message sent by the German Foreign Minister to the Mexican Government in early 1917. In essence the Telegram was an attempt to make Mexico a German ally in the event of the US entering World War I on the Allied side, with the bait being the possibility of Mexico reclaiming the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. When British Intelligence intercepted and decoded the Telegram they made certain that the US government and public heard about it quickly in the hopes of bringing the US into the war.
The book is more than just the story of the Telegram itself. It includes a run through of the various German espionage efforts in the US before and during World War I and a good description of the unease felt by the US at the mysterious German machinations, including possibly collusion with Japan and an attempt to take control of the Panama Canal.
Like all of Tuchman's works, The Zimmermann Telegram is scholarly without being dull, and a real delight.

I remember learning about the Zimmerman Telegram in high school history class. I purchased the book and found it to be fascinating reading. I always loved that period of American history. So much was going on, on both sides of the border. And what really peaked my interest was that I had just seen Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH when I was in Dallas earlier that summer. Well, there you go! Has the world really changed much since then? I think not!

"We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the USA neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following terms: 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 Mexico] of the above most secretly, as soon as the outbreak of war with the USA 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."

Zimmermann Telegram So reads the so-called "Zimmermann Telegram," in which Germany tried to keep the United States out of the Great War in Europe by fomenting trouble on the already-tense southern border and to the west from Japan. Barbara Tuchman's The Zimmermann Telegram chronicles Germany's entrance into the War and her efforts to keep the U.S. neutral, even as England attempted to persuade the U.S. to join the Allies.

Woodrow Wilson worked furiously to negotiate a "peace without victory" in Europe even while trying to keep southern tensions at bay.

Problems south of the border were an immediate concern for Wilson, who was inaugurated just as a coup in 1913 brought most of Mexico under the control of General Victoriano Huerta, "a pure-blooded Indian with a flat nose, a bullet head, a sphinx's eyes behind incongruous spectacles, and a brandy bottle never far from his hand" and considered "everything abhorrent" by Wilson.

Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II had for years been plotting to manage all of the affairs of Europe, imagining himself alone sufficiently competent to carry the terrible burden. As he was able to influence his "cousin Nicky" (the Tsar of Russia) to carry out his plans, Wilhelm started looking further, to Venezuela and finally to Mexico-ultimately joining the U.S. in meddling in her affairs. He had an elaborate scheme involving Japan would ultimately lead the U.S. actually to invade (even to annex) Mexico and the rest of Latin America to respond favorably to an offer from Germany to beat back American expansion.

Unfortunately for Wilhelm, the Germans were not as smart as he had imagined, nor were the British so clueless. Some excellent intelligence work by a small group known simply as "Room 40" managed to produce definite evidence of Germany's aggression and to convince President Wilson to lead the U.S. into war against Germany, bringing in money, supplies, and a much needed boost of morale in the Allies' darkest moments.

The story is masterfully told: several themes are weaved together to carry the reader effortlessly through the intrigues of international politics at the dawn of the twentieth century. Writing in the text is a pleasure to read, engaging and elegant. Tuchman is best known for her later works including The Guns of August (which influenced President Kennedy greatly during the Cuban Missile Crisis), but even this early work stands out as excellent presentation of history. I managed to acquire a copy of an edition produced by The Folio Society, bound in cloth, complete with a case. The book is typeset nicely and includes photographs of critical characters such as Wilson, Wilhelm, Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall, Huerta, General Venustiano Carranza, and General Pancho Villa.

Any student of history is sure to find The Zimmermann Telegram an enlightening work on a critical moment in history and a pleasure to read.

While the Zimmerman Telegram is one of the most important documents in history, and is perhaps the greatest result of code breaking in history, it is nonetheless frequently overlooked. Most people have at least heard "Remember the Lusitania" which had essentially nothing to do with the U.S. entering WWI. Few, however, are familiar with this short telegram that is truly a hinge on which history turned.

One cannot blame Barbara Tuchman for this, however, as this work brings alive the intrigue of the time like no other. Reading like a spy novel, and yet all the more chilling because it's true, Tuchman navigates the reader through the murky waters of WWI intrigue. We learn how, in a misguided effort to distract the U.S. from Europe, Germany sought to foment trouble on the U.S./Mexican border. We learn how the British scrambled to inform the Americans of this, without comprimising their sources. And we learn how a tortured President Wilson was forced to take the steps towards war.

"The Zimmerman Telegram" is history as it should be written; loaded with primary sources, and with the breathless pace that events really unfolded. While better known for "The Guns of August", it is this work that makes me rank Barabara Tuchman as one of the best historians of the 20th Century.

Jake Mohlman

From the techniques involved in decoding and deciphering German diplomatic messages (in layman's terms) to the sacrifices and lives spent acquiring the knowledge of Room 40 (i.e. code books) to the tenacious efforts of Germany to spark U.S involvement in Mexico as well as against the Japanese(!), Tuchman provides a thorough account on the Zimmermann Telegram and its crucial role in pulling a reluctant American nation into the First World War. As a History grad student, I never knew about Germany's aims regarding Japan ("the Yellow Peril") during this period until I read this book. In addition, Tuchman's excellent and often witty writing style makes Zimmermann Telegram (and her many other works) gripping and entertaining, as well as informative.

A couple of customer reviews opine that this is not Tuchman's best book. I disagree; I think it her best. It is also the most absorbing treatment of the subject for the general reader.

I agree with another reader who finds an anti-German prejudice; but I interpret that prejudice, if it can be called that, as really against German militarism, which gave us two world wars. I do not understand it as against all things German.

One reader thought that the story shows how nonfiction can be stranger, at least more interesting, than fiction. I agree; yes, the book does show this extremely well.

The noted historian, Barbara Tuchman, who is famous for her blockbuster "The Guns of August," has taken a footnote incident of WWI, known as the Zimmerman telegram, and turned it into a platform to elucidate the diplomatic history leading to the US's entry into WWI in 1917. It takes a superb story-teller to make an exciting plot out of diplomacy's archives, and create a book which can easily appeal to a reader who has no particular interest in this history. Exciting history.

I remember learning about the Zimmerman Telegram in high school history class. I purchased the book and found it to be fascinating reading. I always loved that period of American history. So much was going on, on both sides of the border. And what really peaked my interest was that I had just seen Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH when I was in Dallas earlier that summer. Well, there you go! Has the world really changed much since then? I think not!

If we remember anything at all from our high school history class about why the United States got into World War I, it might have something to do with unrestricted submarine warfare. But the Zimmermann Telegram, if it was even mentioned, has long disappeared from memory, along with most of the other "facts" we learned in school. Barbara Tuchman, in this superb little book, makes a strong case for the argument that it was the revealing of the contents of this one message that convinced the American public that war with Germany was necessary.

The account reads like a spy thriller, which in fact it is. But there is not one statement which cannot be documented. Tuchman had access to American, British and German records which clearly illustrate the process of decision-making for each of the governments involved. The author has a knack for encapsulating her view of the often unimpressive character of the major players.

By 1916 World War I had degenerated into a horrible bloody stalemate from which there was no escape. Each side was desperate for fighting to end, but could accept nothing less than defeat of the enemy. None of the belligerents were prepared to consider Wilson's efforts toward "peace without victory." The only solution for the Allies was to bring the United States into the war, and for the Central Powers, to keep her out. Germany was convinced that, through unrestricted submarine warfare, against neutral as well as belligerent shipping, she could force Britain to capitulate in a few months. The Allies were hoping for a German blunder that would finally drag the U.S. into the war, and Britain did have a secret weapon of which the Germans knew nothing; she had broken the German diplomatic code and was reading all German international messages, both cable and radio. How this all played out is the theme of this little volume. It is illuminating, with respect to this important turning point in world history, and to the processes by which nations are governed.

Okay I generally have several books that I am reading and jump back and forth between them over the course of days.
This normally isn't a problem for me. But I was starting to question my ability to track the progress of several books because this book became difficult to follow....turns out the printer/publisher messed up the manufacture of the book and has sections and pages out of order. What a mess. It is unreadable. From what I can tell the author was quite capable.....but the book is essentially worthless.

Tuchman has an encyclopedic knowledge of the period of American history just before our entry into World War I. She writes with such familiarity and insight that she made me feel as if she had personally known and interviewed all of the notorious, obscure and fascinating characters who people the book. She writes beautifully and with great sympathy. I was, at first, put off by the amount of detail, finding it somewhat overwhelming, but, fortunately for me, I persevered and I got so hooked on the story that I wished the book was longer.

History at its outlandish best. Found the book bizarrely funny in a dark, human comedy kind of way. The thread of time tangled in the incompetent hands of bungling politicians and pathogenic war lords -- God must be a satirist to spin such stories.

Barbara Tuchman is one of the leading historians of the 20th century ; she proves it here once more. In this book she manages to use an anecdote - the telegram - to explain in a thrilling and convincing way the reasons for the US to enter the war. It is a brilliant book thanks to her remarkable style which blends suspense and clarity and yet no compromise with historical truth.
Many historians are experts and have a vast knowledge of their subject. Very few like Barbara Tuchman make their knowledge accessible in an enticing way to the "man in the street".

The tendency over time (and even while it's happening) is to strip history down to a series of simplistic events and convenient anecdotes. I've never been able to understand why this happens as most people seem to make the heaving and ho-ing of forces and stresses within their own heavily rationalized lives far more complicated than, say, the bewildering complexities that lead up to the start of the Second World War. Listen to any Leftist spout the minimalist canon about Viet Nam or Iraq and then listen to them go on for hours about all the reasons--social, psychological, neurochemical, personal historical--why they can't, for instance, quit smoking. It's loads of fun.

[Author's note: for funsies go on to any Left-winger you know about how Rome and Carthage went to war years ago over oil. They'll grapple for a while with a word they've never heard before (Carthage) but nod eagerly over the oil explanation. Then, to be extra wicked, explain that it was baby oil they fought over and the evil Carthaginians (they treated women and minorities terribly, that's what made them evil) made it from REAL BABIES. Important: make it clear that the Carthaginians were white and patriarchal so you aren't accused of hate speech! If this is done with a straight face and with serious tone it'll be swallowed in one gulp. I know, I've done it]

What the author does here is pull back the curtain a bit on all the machinations and plots surging to and fro in the world prior to WWI. Did you know the Japanese--generally fairly friendly to us--were very interested in establishing a naval base in Mexico? You see we were always their only rivals in the Pacific--that's why the Great White Fleet stopped in by for a visit and a muscle flex. Then there's Kaiser Bill, a guy who idolized our Teddy Roosevelt, plotting away to trip us up and maybe even carve us up. Things like that. After a read of this type one gets a better sense of why the US was so hot-to-trot over an American canal in Panama, why we wanted a base in the Phillipines, and so on. You see, back then, like now, the world was a den of wolves and backstabbers. Between 1900 and 1920 the US could have easily, and without doin' nuthin' much, gone to war with any major or minor power. We nearly went to war with Germany over Venezuela. Gee, I wish it was all as uncomplicated as so many make it out to be.

The Zimmerman Telegram is a first rate historical thriller but like all thrillers it takes sides in history and does not give a complete picture. I first read The Zimmerman Telegram in the mid seventies. It seemed highly improbable at the time and I thought it must have been a British plot to involve the US into World War I. Reading it now, I found it a very interesting and compelling work. Much research obviously went into her book, and since the German authors of the Telegram admitted to the plot, it must be true. Ms Tuchman's style of writing made the history come alive and is well worth reading. She does however take a distinctly Anglophile point of view of history and although this makes the book more exciting for the reader, it does distort the historical perspective.
We are living in a time when much of US history is being rewritten to include other points of view. The United States is truly a nation of immigrants and the immigrant point of view is now being considered in history where as before it was completely ignored. First, no one can deny that the United States was definitely pro-ally and not neutral, by sending goods and weapons to the allies, without which they could not have continued the war (the US did not insist on being able to send goods and weapons to Germany). Second, there was never any threat of an invasion of the United States by Mexico, despite the pathetic Columbus Raid by Pancho Villa. Mexico was in the middle of a long drawn out Civil War and the United States had supported various Mexican leaders throughout the conflict. The only invasion threat was by the United States into Mexico which it seemed to do at will by Pershing in the North and the US Navy in the South at Vera Cruz. The United States had a very large and modern Navy and had already blockaded much of Mexico. The US did not stop the large British Oil exports from Mexico to Britain but did blockade any exports from Mexico to Germany.
Finally, the United States did have a large Irish and German immigrant population who were definitely anti-British. President Wilson took the extra step of threatening these immigrants to not interfere with his brand of neutrality.

Excellent book. Easy read. Besides info.on the telegram itself, Tuchman does a superlative job explaining the Mexican-Japanese connection which is often overlooked, but is exceedingly important in understanding the telegram's significance.

" Britain knew that all was lost unless the United States joined the war..." Read this "gem" in the description. If this is an example of the scholarship of the book, I want nothing to do with it. Germany offered armistice after the collapse of Russia. Britain refused. It appears GB wanted complete German humiliation, regardless of loss of life.

Tuchman was a fine historian, however she wrote this book before the expiration of the British Official Secrets Act on the Zimmermann Telegram whereupon it was revealed it was, indeed, a fake concocted by the British Secret Service as a ploy to entice the US into the war. That did not happen until 1966-7. At the time it was distrusted by American opinion, as just that, a British fake. However the sinking of the Lusitannia removed any remaining American doubts as to entry in the Great War. Subsequent to the revelation that the Zimmermann Telegram was a fake, (50 years after the fact) followed the item that the Lusitannia was carrying arms and munitions in her hold. The Germans knew this and announced, via ads in New York papers, their intention to sink her, which they did. Undersea exploration has since borne this out. Both incidents drew the US into the war, both were based on falsehoods. In war, the first casualty is truth. Now, what makes us think 9ll is anything different??

Barbara Tuchman takes the reader into the story of history, making the characters real people, revealing their motivations and personalities, yet sticking to the facts of the matter. When one has finished one of her books, one totally understands the issues discussed from several points of view. Her use of the language is brilliant, as well. Every time I read one of her books, I learn a couple of words new to me. She injects humor, sarcasm (occasionally) and insights you never got in school.