Chapter fifty-five: When Teddy goes marching in...
source: The Frikipedia, the useless encyclopedia
Since the election of Theodore Roosevelt to the office of President of the United States, America’s entry into the war on the Allied side was just a matter of time. Thus, von Holtzendorff and von Hindenburg were eager to see the German submarines unleashed to sink as many Allied merchants as possible. And, of course, the sooner, the better. On 8th January 1917, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, his hopes for a negotiated peace vanished, acceded to the demands of the warlords. Thus, on 10th January, Germany’s Ambassador in Washington D.C., Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, informed the American government of the impending resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. The submarines would fight without restraint from 1st February.
The American opinion was greatly concerned as the prospect of another Lusitania incident reappeared. Roosevelt was quite lucky (and thankful) as Amendment XVIII of the Constitution, passed the previous year (1), facilitated an Inauguration Day on January 20th. This dilemma was seen most notably in 1861 when Abraham Lincoln had to wait four months before he could deal with the secession of Southern states. As an indication of what was to follow, on January 10th, Roosevelt spoke unambiguously of the need of the U.S. Navy to venture into the Atlantic to protect merchant shipping from German submarines. When this was known, Berlin began to devise a scheme for an alliance with Mexico in case the United States declared war against Germany. Six days after Roosevelt's speech, the Imperial Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, prepared a note to be transmited to the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt.The telegram instructed Eckardt that if the U.S. appeared likely to enter the war, he was to approach the Mexican Government with a proposal for military alliance in return for financial support and recognition of any Mexican claim of territory lost during the Mexican-American War and the Gadsden Purchase.
As the respectable Great War veteran, The Right Hon. Captain Sir Edmund Blackadder, MM and bar, KCB, MP, would say, the Zimmerman telegram had only a fault: "
it was bollocks" (2). Mexican President Venustiano Carranza ordered a careful examination of the feasibility of a Mexican takeover of their former territories and it was concluded that it would not be possible or even desirable (i.e The USA were too strong and the only sizable arms manufacturer in the Americas; the Royal Navy controlled the Atlantic sea lanes, so Germany could not supply Mexico with war supplies directly; even if Mexico had the military means to re-take the area in question, there would be the trouble of dealing with the large, English-speaking population). Thus, Carranza formally declined Zimmermann's proposals on April 14.
To make worse this shameful event, the cryptographers of the Royal Navy's codebreaking operation, Room 40, under Rear Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall, KCMG, CB, RN, decoded the German note and immediately recognised its significance. The British government wanted to use the incriminating telegram to draw the U.S. into the war on the Allied side. However, London had to find a way to to explain to the Americans how they got the ciphertext of the telegram without having them discover that they were reading their diplomatic communications. Assuming that the German Embassy in Mexico City would take receipt of the telegram, a "Mr. H.", a British agent in Mexico, bribed an employee of the commercial telegraph company for a copy of the message, and its contents were decrypted. Now the British government could pass the ciphertext to the Americans without embarrassment.
Meanwhile Roosevelt was about to begin an unprecedented third term as President of the United States. In his inagurational adress he spoke about the nation's “
manifest destiny in world affairs” and of the “
responsible use of power”, while warning Germany that her bully ways were no longer tolerated. When Roosevelt finished his speech, spectators burst into spontaneous cheering and applause, demonstrating the immense popularity the President had developed during his time in public life. As soon as he arrived to the White House, one of his first acts was to assure Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, the British Ambassador in Washington D.C., and Jean Jules Jusserand, the French Ambassador (3), that the United States was committed to supporting the Allies in the war against Germany. The honour of the United States, he assured them, was at stake.
Then, on the morning of 22nd January, Balfour called for Walter Page, the American Ambassador in London, to show him the Zimmerman Telegram. Page was stunned by the document presented to him, and he soon transmitted it to Washington D.C., where the new Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes received it. Roosevelt was enraged at the content of the Zimmerman telegram (4) and he convened an emergency meeting of his Cabinet, where it was agreed that the document offered the nation with a legitimate casus belli. To prepare the ground, the telegram was presented to the press. Of course, popular reaction was indignant. Suggestions from pro-German lobbies that the telegram was a fabrication and a sinister British plot to entice the United States into the war were shot down when Zimmerman candidly admitted the telegram’s authenticity on 24th January during a press conference (5), even if he added that the note’s proposals would only be carried out in the event of an American declaration of war. It was enough to arouse the public into a patriotic fervour which helped to forget the failure of Pershing's Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa.
If you're a true American, buy War Bonds!
Congress was summoned by Roosevelt on 26th January. Roosevelt addressed Congress, accusing Germany of fighting a war “
contrary to civilisation” and of plotting to dismember the United States, and he implored Congress to sanction a declaration of war in order to facilitate the United States’ rise as a positive force in world affairs. After debate, the Senate voted in favour of a declaration of war by 84-4 on 29th January, with the House confirming the decision 375-48 on 31st January. The warlords in Berlin were presented with a finite amount of time before the balance of power would be unalterably weighed against them.
(1) Originally, the
Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which established the beginning and ending of the terms of the elected federal offices, was ratified on January 23, 1933. The
Eighteenth Amendment.defined "intoxicating liquors" to exclude those used for religious purposes and established Prohibition in the United States, was passed on January 16, 1919. Well, now the Twentieh is the Eighteenth, which, if Teddy decided to go Prohibitionist, will become, in due time, the Nineteenth, which will become the Twentieh in the fullnest of time, so everybody could vote regardless of their sex (hi suffragettes. Let me quote Lord Flasheart: "
Any girl who wants to chain herself to *my* railings and suffer a jet movement gets *my* vote!". After him the British suffragettes were known as sufferjets. Blessed be Lord Flasheart).
(2) I suppose that the German point of view about the Zimmerman telegram was "in a war where so many stupid ideas have been used, no one will notice another one". Of course, every rule has an exception.
(3) Both were old friends of TR: sir Cecil was best man at TR’s wedding, and Jusserand was TR’s old tennis partner.
(4) In fact, when TR knew of the Telegram, the whole world noticed it. Teddy's roar was quite noticeable (The Krakatoa's eruption, you say? A puff, sir, a puff).
(5) Who needs enemies having civil servants?!?!?!
@Faeelin: Me too, until I took a look about their army and saw half of their divisions in half strenght, few guns and fewer machine guns. What came later did not surprise me so much after that.
@Enewald: The Aussies, Boers, Channucks, and Kiwies are busy in France, the Indians in Mesopotamia. Unless I manage to send there fome Falklandese pinguins, I have no one to spare.
@Nathan Madien: Here!
@quaazi: I have the odd feeling that this AAR is no longer about WW1 but about moustaches.... am I the only one?
@Agent Larkin: YES! And quite soon!
@SirCliveWolf: Horned battle helmets! Yes, that's the way to defeat the darned Hun and his picklehaube!
Over by Christmas... thank God you were so kind not to mention the year