The Zimmerman Telegram (Encore)
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The History of the German Telegram
The British knew that once the German message arrived in Washington, it would be forwarded to Mexico via a commercial telegraph service. Their story was that they had bribed someone working in the Mexican office to get a copy of the telegram. They would then say that they had stolen the decrypted message from the Germans in Mexico, thus covering up the fact that they had known the Germans code. Because the Americans would have kept a copies of the encrypted message as it passed through their hands, the British could quietly slip the Americans the German code so they could decrypt it themselves and verify its authenticity. On February 24th, the details of thetelegram were given to Wilson, along with all of
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