The Zimmermann Telegram

by Barbara W. Tuchman

  President’s scorn for Ambassador Wilson: He regarded him with a “profound sense of distrust”: Baker, iv, 238.

  Refuses to communicate with Ambassador Wilson: H. L. Wilson to Secretary Bryan, June 8, 1913, U.S. Foreign Relations, 1913, 807. In his memoirs Ambassador Wilson wrote that he never could obtain an answer or instructions from Bryan or Wilson so that he was without guidance as to American policy, “save by conjecture.”

  “The best thing that can happen …”: Bryce to Wilson. November 7, 1913, Baker, iv, 281.

  “Morality is all right …”: Gerard to Bryan, December 20, 1913, Baker, iv, 300.

  “That person who calls himself”: Baker, iv, 324.

  Oil to British Navy: Link, 116, n. 22.

  Wilson’s distaste for Cowdray and Carden: This is fully documented in the exchange of letters between Ambassador Walter Hines Page and Colonel House on the Mexican problem, Hendrick, i, 201–31. See especially House to Page, December 12, 1913; “The President was delighted with what you had to say concerning Lord Cowdray. We do not love him for we think that between Cowdray and Carden a large part of our troubles in Mexico has been made,” 218.

  England recognizes Huerta: Baker, iv, 243, n. 2.

  Joint Board mobilizes fleet: Daniels, Wilson Era, i, 163.

  Wilson infuriated: Ibid., 163.

  Admirals “sat up nights …”: Ibid., 168.

  “Bad taste”: Ibid.

  Businessmen’s memorandum: Baker, iv, 248–49.

  “That desperate brute”: Wilson to Mrs. Hulbert, November 2, 1913, ibid., 288.

  Hale’s report: Ibid., 255.

  Another confidential emissary: This was Governor John Lind of Minnesota, who was as innocent of Mexican affairs and the Spanish language as Hale but was a friend of Secretary Bryan’s: Houston, i, 72; Cline, 145.

  “Seeking to counsel Mexico”: Baker, iv, 266.

  “An act of bad faith”: Ibid., 277.

  No appreciation in England: Page to Wilson, October 25, 1913, Hendrick, i, 184.

  “Such means as may be necessary …”: U.S. Foreign Relations, 1913, 856.

  Tyrrell’s mission: Hendrick, i, 202–204; Seymour, IP, i, 194–206.

  “I am going to teach”: Hendrick, i, 204.

  “Taking to their tents”: Page to House, November 26, 1913, ibid., 217.

  Sir Edward Grey: “I did not believe that morally there was much to choose between Huerta and his opponents”: Grey, ii, 100.

  Panama Canal tolls: Ibid., chap. viii; Seymour, IP, i, 205.

  Ypiranga, Bavaria, Cecilie: Gerard to Bryan, May 5, 1914, reports Cecilie sailed from Hamburg on April 14 and Bavaria on April 17. Archives, 812.113/3167.

  Dolphin: U.S. Foreign Relations, 1914, 448–49.

  Huerta asks why U.S. wants salute: Baker, iv, 324.

  One cabinet member: Secretary of Agriculture David F. Houston, q.v., i, 116.

  “Might take the nation into war”: Houston, ibid.

  “In no conceivable circumstances …”: Ibid.

  Wilson tells Congressional leaders: Senator Lodge, who was one of the four, wrote a memorandum of the meeting which is reprinted in Baker, iv, 326. The mood of Congress is best conveyed in the daily reports of the New York Times (hereafter referred to as NYT) and other newspapers.

  Midnight telephone conference: Baker, iv, 329; Daniels, Woodrow Wilson, 182–83; Tumulty, 151–53.

  “Ypiranga will arrive tomorrow”: Daniels, Wilson Era, i, 193.

  Order to Admiral Fletcher: U.S. Foreign Relations, 1914, 443–636, contains all the official dispatches connected with the Veracruz incident.

  Wilson paced the floor: Baker, iv, 330.

  “Medieval points of punctilio”: Economist (London), April 18, 1914.

  Veracruz action: U.S. Foreign Relations, 1914, loc. cit.

  “Four of our men killed”: Ibid.

  “Preternaturally pale”: H. F. Forman quoted in Baker, iv, 330.

  Bernstorff protests: Daniels, Wilson Era, i, 200.

  Bryan’s apology: NYT, report from Washington, April 23, 1914. State Department Memorandum: Daniels, ibid., 201.

  Ypiranga delivers arms: NYT, reports from Washington, May 9, 13, 27, 1914.

  “Mexico is a god-send to us”: Bernstorff, Memoirs, 122.

  Kaiser’s emissary to London: Gerard to House, August 3, 1915: “Von Jagow confessed to me that they had tried to get England to interfere with them in Mexico,” Seymour, IP, ii, 28. When Gerard’s book, repeating this story, was published in 1917, a Chicago publisher, Mr. James Keeley, confirmed the incident in a statement carried by the NYT, August 21, 1917. Mr. Keeley said that during a recent visit to London a British official had told him that a German emissary, introduced by the German Ambassador as a personal friend and representative of the Kaiser, had come to see him just before the outbreak of war, to propose joint action in Mexico. The German emissary’s quoted words are those quoted by Mr. Keeley as having been told him by the British official. The emissary was, in all probability, Albert Ballin, president of the Hamburg-Amerika Line and friend of the Kaiser, who was, in fact, sent by the Kaiser to London late in July, where he talked to Grey, Haldane, and Churchill in a last-minute effort to persuade England to stay out of the coming war. Hulderman, B. Albert Ballin (London, Cassell, 1922), 215.

  “We have gone down to Mexico”: Address at Brooklyn Navy Yard, May 11, 1914, Baker, iv, 341.

  “I am longing for an exit”: Wilson to Dr. Jacobus, April 29, 1914, ibid., 335.

  Huerta aboard the Dresden: NYT, July 18, 1914, report from Puerto Mexico.

  CHAPTER 4. THE THIRD PARTNER—JAPAN

  “Disappeared around the corner”: O’Shaughnessy, Intimate Pages, 252.

  Germany believed Japan her natural ally: Gerard, Face to Face; also Becker. After America was at war, Viscount Ishii told Secretary Lansing that “through various channels the German government had three times sought to persuade Japan to withdraw from the Allies …” U.S. Lansing Papers, ii, 435.

  Von Hintze: Portrait in O’Shaughnessy, Diplomatic Days, 74. Character and appearance, O’Shaughnessy, Intimate Pages, 249–53. His suggestion about Edith Cavell, Reinsch. Facts about his career, NYT, July 20, 1917 (when he was being considered as successor to Zimmermann) and NYT, July 12, 1918 (when he was appointed Foreign Minister). See also Diez, 111.

  Hintze at Manila Bay: NYT, July 12, 1918.

  Huerta asks Japan: NYT, April 30, 1914.

  Disguised as steward: China Press, Shanghai, quoted NYT, February 27, 1915. See also O’Shaughnessy and Reinsch.

  “If you can do it once …”: China Press, article cited.

  Safe conduct for von Hintze: Bernstorff to Bryan, October 7 and 31, 1914, Archives, 701.6293/3 and /4. Lansing to Chinda and to Spring-Rice, November 3, 1914, ibid.

  Japan refuses safe conduct: Chinda to Lansing, November 9, 1914, and Bryan to Bernstorff, November 16, 1914, ibid., 701.6293/5.

  Hintze cancels passage: R. P. Schwerin of Pacific Mail Steamship Co. to Bryan, November 13, 1914, and Bryan to Schwerin, November 14, 1914, ibid., 701.6293/6 and /5a.

  German visitors warn Gerard: Gerard, My Four Years.

  Baron von Schoen: U.S. Lansing Papers, i, 76.

  “Not only desirable but imperative …”: Ibid.

  Dr. Fuehr: Senate, Propaganda; evidence of Captain Lester.

  Geier: Jones and Hollister, 52.

  Ludwig Stein: NY American, April 25, 1915.

  Japanese commander visits Villa: Scott, Hugh L., 512. Senate, Mexican Affairs, testimony of George Carothers, to whom Villa told it.

  American General Staff’s plans: Times (London), March 2, 1917.

  “Every European and Asiatic General Staff …”: Brigadier General Henry J. Reilly, quoted in Tompkins, chap. xxxv.

  “Mr. V. Heintze”: Consul Sammons at Shanghai to Ambassador Reinsch at Peking, January 18 and 20, 1915, enclosing articles from North China Daily News of January 18 and from China Press of January 20. Archives, 701.6293/7 and /8.

&n
bsp; Yüan Shih-k’ai: King-Hall, Stephen, Western Civilization and the Far East (London, Methuen, 1924), 160.

  Japan notches up her price: Japan’s motives were well understood by her allies. Britain hoped, said Sir Edward Grey confidentially, to “localize” Japan as far as possible in order “to keep down the bill which they might present at the close of the war.” Diary of Chandler P. Anderson, January 9, 1915.

  Von Hintze’s overtures to Japan: Becker.

  Overtures to Japanese Ambassador in Stockholm: Becker.

  Japan informs Russia: Becker.

  Russian Ambassador worried: Becker.

  Asama at Turtle Bay: Archives, 894.20212, passim through April 1915. NYT, April 14–22, 1915.

  Japanese blame Germany: NYT, April 20, 1915.

  German press: Berlin Post, April 21, quoted, NYT April 22, 1915.

  Spring-Rice: Diary of Chandler P. Anderson, June 18, 1915. His being neurasthenic, etc.: Although Sir Cecil was a beloved companion of Theodore Roosevelt’s during his early years in Washington, illness and worry over Wilson’s policy toward the Allies disturbed his relations with the Wilson administration. In the index to House’s Intimate Papers the name Spring-Rice has nine separate page references under the subhead, “his nervousness.” Wilson called him that “highly excitable invalid,” Link, 199, n. 8.

  “It would be a serious day”: Diary, June 24, 1915, House papers, Yale.

  “I think that if German militarism …”: Memorandum of July 11, 1915, Lansing papers, Library of Congress. This fear continued right up until the overthrow of the Czar. A few weeks before that event, another member of Wilson’s Cabinet, Secretary of Interior Lane, wrote on February 9, 1917, of the “likelihood of a German-Russian-Japanese alliance as a natural thing at the end of the war.” Lane, 234.

  “Meticulous, metallic and mousy”: Daniels, Wilson Era, i, 441.

  Triple alliance: Becker gives a thorough analysis of the strategies and policies involved in Germany’s attempts to bring this about. At one point it was feared that such an alliance had actually been concluded. Polk to House, October 19, 1916, Polk papers, Yale.

  Von Hintze openly told: This interview was given to the correspondent of the Kokumin Shimbun at Yokohama in April 1917, when von Hintze was on his way home after China joined the Allies, quoted in NYT, April 28, 1917. The fact that the Japanese sought out and published the views of an enemy ambassador is evidence of their desire to keep alive the Allied fear that Japan might change sides.

  “I suspect the Germans and Japanese”: Gerard to Lansing, December 7, 1915, U.S. Lansing Papers.

  New evidence about von Hintze: Gerard to Lansing, December 14, 1915, ibid.

  Hugo Stinnes: Becker, 83 ff.

  Hearst film: Senate, Propaganda.

  CHAPTER 5. “VON RINTELEN CAME HERE, BACKED BY MILLIONS …”

  Huerta in Barcelona: Archives, 812.001 H 27/6.

  Rintelen in Barcelona: Current History, April 1917. See also Jones and Hollister.

  Rintelen sent by German High Command: German Ministry of War to Captain Boy-Ed, April 4, 1915, Mixed Claims Commission, Exhibit 320. In interview given to NYT, January 3, 1940, Rintelen said he was sent on the direct orders of General von Falkenhayn and General Michaelis.

  Rintelen’s career and character: Rintelen’s career was fully documented in newspaper articles at the time of his first trial in April 1917 and again at the time of his release in November 1920; see especially NY World, May 2, 1917, and December 13 and 14, 1920; see also Jones and Hollister, Papen and Rintelen.

  “Telling Wilson what’s what”: NY World, May 2, 1917.

  “Poor Mexico”: Quoted by Strode, 263.

  “Starving and without a government”: Wilson, June 2, 1915, Baker, iii, 333.

  German community in Mexico: Report of House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Congressional Record, 55, No. 4, 192–93; also Senate, Mexican Affairs, passim; see also Ackerman and Martin, P.A.

  “Do something positive”: Papen to General von Falkenhayn, April 9, 1915, Mixed Claims Commission, Exhibit 192.

  Boy-Ed equally resented Rintelen: Papen, Memoirs.

  “Most dangerous mind”: Wilson to Lansing, December 5, 1915, U.S. Lansing Papers, i, 90.

  Bernstorff’s character and career: Bernstorff, Bernhard, Harris; Current Opinion, July 1915; also references in House, Lansing, and other memoirs of the period.

  Willingness to be bored: Current Literature, February 1909.

  Rintelen meets Bernstorff: German Documents, i, 255.

  Private offices in New York: Jones and Hollister.

  Rintelen meets Huerta: Current History, May 1917. Rintelen himself gives an elaborate account of this meeting, in which he pictures himself addressing Huerta “as a complete stranger” and the next moment “we came to terms” and completed arrangements for German financing of Huerta’s counter-revolt in Mexico. In the precipitate manner in which he accomplishes incredible feats and the ease with which he vaults over difficulties, Rintelen’s picture of himself is a replica of Baron Munchausen.

  “I’m Voska”: Steed, ii, 43.

  Voska’s career: Voska.

  Voska’s first coup, meets Gaunt, spy organization, plants Dictaphone: Voska.

  Gaunt and Rathom: For the role of Rathom, see Peterson; also Paxson, i, 263; also Rathom’s articles in World’s Work, December 1917 and February 1918.

  Carranza and Villa demand Huerta’s arrest: NYT, April 9, 11, 13, 1915.

  Rintelen’s pseudonyms and sabotage: NYT, October 23, 1915, October 1, 1916, January 3, 1940; see also Jones and Hollister.

  Wilson orders watch on German and Austrian embassies: McAdoo, Flynn, Senate, Propaganda.

  “We rented an apartment …”: Flynn.

  Wires tapped in New York: Senate, Propaganda, evidence of Agent Bielaski and Gaston B. Means. When this testimony was given, Senator Overman interrupted, “Whatever the government did in tapping wires, we do not want to know anything about.”

  Hansen is really Rintelen: Diary of Chandler P. Anderson, July 10, 1915. He writes that Ambassador Spring-Rice has told him that all information points to “a man named Hansen” as the head of the “German Secret Association” and Anderson finds this very interesting as a Miss Seward has just told him she recognized Hansen as her old acquaintance Rintelen. Two days later, July 12, Anderson notes that this is confirmed by a report of a Department of Justice agent.

  Rintelen reports to Berlin on Huerta: Rintelen.

  Codes used between Bernstorff and Berlin: Bernstorff to Ministry of War, December 10, 1915, Mixed Claims Commission, Exhibit 320.

  Eight million rounds of ammunition and other details of plot: NYT, August 14, November 23 and 24, December 5 and 8, 1915.

  Papen goes down to Mexican border: Providence Journal, August 4, 1915.

  Boy-Ed carries on negotiations with Huerta: Ibid.

  Huerta boards train: NYT, June 26, 1915.

  Lansing told Huerta has changed trains: Archives, 812.001 H87. This is a special file on Huerta which contains all the documents concerning Huerta from the time of his arrival in New York to his death. For the events of his arrest and imprisonment, see also Lansing’s desk diary, from June 28 through July, 1915.

  Cobb’s arrest of Huerta: Archives, 812.001 H87.

  Mayor of El Paso: Army invites Huerta to dinner: U.S. Attorney in El Paso to Attorney General Gregory, June 29, 1915, Wilson Papers, Series 2, Library of Congress.

  “I will leave this jail only …”: NYT, July 6, 1915.

  “I have not had a drink …”: Ibid.

  “Orozco gathering forces”: Archives, 812.001 H87.

  “This solves the problem”: Ibid.

  Huerta appeals to Bernstorff: Ibid.

  Bernstorff forwards message to Lansing; Wilson’s comment: Ibid.

  Rintelen recalled; sails on Noordam: James, 101.

  Rintelen at Scotland Yard: James, 101; see also Rintelen.

  Hall’s role in recall of Rintelen: NYT, October 4, 1
939; a retrospective article on Rintelen’s career, which states that his recall in 1915 was “the result of a trick message sent by the British Admiralty.” Rintelen confirmed this in an interview given to the NYT, January 3, 1940.

  Footnote; Rintelen’s subsequent career: NYT, November 25, 27, 28, 1920; October 14, 1939; January 3, May 24, 1940; November 6, 1945; May 30, 1949. See also Forum, February 1919; James, 102.

  Purloined briefcase: McAdoo; also Saturday Evening Post, June 22 and August 17, 1929.

  “Buried for the last ten days”: Diary of Chandler P. Anderson, August 21, 1915.

  Archibald: Great Britain, Foreign Office, Command 8012; see also James, 97–98; Grattan, Voska.

  “A break may come”: House to Grey, September 13, 1915, Seymour, IP, ii, 45.

  CHAPTER 6. VIVA VILLA!—MADE IN GERMANY

  “I have never known a man …”: Wilson to Lansing, July 2, 1915, Link, 133, n. 54.

  “The safest man to tie to”: O’Shaughnessy, Intimate Pages, 331.

  Villa an “idealist”: Ibid.

  Bryan’s strong point not logic: Lord Bryce once remarked that Bryan was “almost unable to think.” Tansill, 165.

  Lansing recommends support of Villa: August 9, 1915, U.S. Lansing Papers, ii, 541 ff.

  Lansing wrote it down: Lansing Diary, October 10, 1915.

  Americans made a deal: Pinchon, 330.

  “Obnoxious underlings”: House to Wilson, November 21, 1915, Seymour, ii, 47.

  Department of Justice card file: Strother.

  “Convinced Rintelen was principal reason”: Bernstorff to Ministry of War, December 10, 1915, Mixed Claims Commission, Ex. 320.

  Bernstorff’s interview with Lansing: U.S. Lansing Papers, i, 86.

  “Utterly false”: Ibid., i, 91.

  Huerta’s illness and death: NYT through November and December 1915 and January 1916; also O’Shaughnessy, Intimate Pages.

  Thomas H. Holmes: NYT, January 12, 1916.

  “This foul and brutal murder”: Ibid.

  Wilson, through shut teeth: Baker, vi, 74–75.

  Governor of Texas: NYT, January 13, 1916.

  Villa saw himself facing oblivion: Cline.

  Carranza’s long white whiskers: Stevens.