[47818] in Cypherpunks
Re: SS Obergruppenfuhrer Zimmermann (NOT!)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Tue Jan 23 22:47:29 1996
To: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 23 Jan 1996 19:07:14 PST."
<m0tevYq-0008y2C@pacifier.com>
Reply-To: perry@piermont.com
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 22:36:30 -0500
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
jim bell writes:
> Maybe this is common knowledge, but the name "Zimmermann" and crypto had
> another relationship, in World War I. If anybody knows more about this
> incident than my vague recollection of the famous "Zimmermann cipher" would
> you care to tell the story?
It was the Zimmermann Telegram, actually, and it was a dispatch from
the Germans to the Mexicans trying to promise them most of the
southwest in exchange for being allies against the U.S. (which wasn't
yet in the war). The Brits intercepted and decoded it and released it,
which forced the U.S. into World War I.
Perry
