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SEIFFE:  Another History Lesson

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

By Ralf Seiffe

Set the wayback machine to April 1917.  The War To End All Wars was raging in Europe and not going well for any of the belligerents. Neither side was able to break the stalemate in the trenches while the world waited for a dithering Woodrow Wilson to decide whether to commit America to enter the war.  If it did, the Germans would lose.

To help resolve the deadlock, the German intelligence service plucked Vladimir Lenin out of Swiss exile and sent him off to infect Russia with revolution. Their objective was to overthrow the Czar and his German-born Czarina and thereby knock Russia out of the war.  Once the Russians withdrew, German troops fighting in the east could be moved to reinforce the western front and break the British and French before the Americans might arrive.

The Imperial Staff considered Lenin so toxic, they insisted on transporting him through their territory in a sealed railroad car.  While the short-term gain of knocking Russia out of World War I would seem like a very bad idea in April 1945, Lenin accomplished the German’s tactical goal and their High Command was able to redeploy their eastern front troops for service in the west.

That same sort of realpolitik the Germans used to enlist Lenin to their cause served to hatch a plot in our hemisphere.  Arthur Zimmerman, the German foreign minister, noticed that the border between the United States and Mexico was a source of friction between the two countries.  “Black Jack” Pershing, the general who would soon face Germans in France , had just chased Pancho Villa back into Mexico ’s interior and this rankled the Mexican revolutionary government.

Beyond this still simmering provocation, Zimmerman also recognized the longer history between the U.S. and Mexico .  He was aware that Mexico considered the border states of California , Arizona , New Mexico and Texas as former Mexican provinces that the United States had stolen by conquest in the Nineteenth Century.

With these facts in mind, Zimmerman sent a coded telegram to his ambassador in Mexico City instructing the diplomat to propose that the Mexicans enter World War I on the side of the Germans.  In exchange, the Germans proposed to give California , Texas , New Mexico and Arizona “back” to Mexico as spoils of war.

Unknown to Zimmerman, the British had bugged the commercial cable on which the Foreign Minister had sent his telegram and, once in British possession, the famous “Room 40” cracked the code.  The Brits immediately recognized the incendiary nature of Zimmerman’s proposal but had a dilemma.  By sending it to the Americans, Wilson could be swayed to enter the war but by doing so, they would tip the Central Powers that they were reading the German’s mail.

The subterfuge the Brits invented to get the message to President Wilson made a very interesting book by Barbara Tuchman but the bottom line was when Wilson read the “Zimmerman Telegram” he used it as the final reason to go to war with Germany .  On April 2, 1917, Wilson cited the “eloquent evidence” in the telegram as one of the reasons to grant him a Declaration of War.

Fast forward nearly 90 years.  The Mexican intelligentsia still considers the four states “their” territory and they have replaced the bandit Villa with tolerance of a narco-cartel operating on, and occasionally crossing, our border.   American, “man on the street” dissatisfaction with the border situation is growing just as it did before Pershing’s punitive thrust into Mexico .

It is remarkable that the same issues extant in 1917 are still with us.  How long before some modern day Zimmerman, perhaps his Chinese counterpart, recognizes the same opportunity to drive a wedge between our two countries?   In 1917, the Mexicans rejected the German’s suit but then they didn’t have 12 million in the U.S. illegally.  Who knows what their answer would be today.

©2006 Ralf Seiffe

Ralf Seiffe advises business start-ups and product launches from Chicago, Illinois and is a political analyst and columnist for the Illinois Leader and Illinois Review.