[47852] in Cypherpunks
Re: SS Obergruppenfuhrer Zimmermann (NOT!)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim Philp)
Wed Jan 24 10:11:43 1996
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 10:11:28 -0500 (EST)
From: Tim Philp <bplib@wat.hookup.net>
To: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Cc: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>, cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: <199601240336.WAA11471@jekyll.piermont.com>
If I recall correctly, the Zimmermann Telegram did NOT bring the US into
the war. It was however one of the many things that lead to a US decision
to enter the war. In itself it did not cause the US entry.
Just my $0.02
Tim Philp
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On Tue, 23 Jan 1996, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>
> 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
>
