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 "On the first of February, we intend to begin unrestricted submarine warfare." September 13, 2008
What I like best about Barbara Tuchman as a history writer is the sense of humor and amazement that you can hear in her writing as she talks about the foibles of history and its dramatis personae. I do not like The Zimmerman Telegram as much as I like its big brother, The Guns of August. It is a dense treatment of a pivotal incident relating to the Great War, rather than a larger treatment of the conflict itself. This doesn't make it bad, but I was glad that I read The Zimmermann Telegram after having read Guns of August.
The Zimmerman telegram was one of the instruments that contributed to bringing the US into the Great War. Tuchman focuses on the events that led up to the fateful telegram and touches on relevant issues such as Mexican politics, code-breaking, and US neutrality.
Recommended.
 Tuchman's tale a short-yet-dense exploration of forgotten espionage March 16, 2008
World War I has receded into the fog of history for most Americans - recent surveys show that the average American knows as much about The Great War as they do the War of 1812 or the Spanish-American War. In other words, not much.
Barbara Tuchman's "The Zimmerman Telegram" is a perfect remedy to this embarrassment. One of St. Tuchman's earlier works, "TZT" is short - barely clocking in at over 200 pages, plus footnotes. But the book gains strength from its lean stature - this is not a bloated history filled with peripheries, tangents, or fantasies by the writer.
Instead, Tuchman stays focused on the personalities and national interests involved. America was desperate to stay out of World War I, as was President Woodrow Wilson (driving Teddy Roosevelt to distraction as he suffers outside the halls of power). England and France were desperate for America to join the Allies, but if the million-man casualty figures wouldn't make Wilson budge, what could they do? And Germany was desperate to keep America out of the war - its economic might and vast resources would wrap up the affair pretty quickly.
And so Germany got clever - too clever by half. The Zimmerman Telegram contained an offer to open up a new front to keep America busy - by having Japan and Mexico form an alliance and attack the soft underbelly of the U.S. This plot, the Germans promised, would yield much of the Southwest back to Mexico, restoring national pride and shifting the global balance of power.
And yet, thanks to German arrogance and British code-breakers, the Brits found themselves with the ultimate smoking gun - the Zimmerman Telegram.
Tuchman tells this riveting tale with insight, detail, and verve. The pages fly by in this highly readable history, and any reader will have his or her interest in the WWI era raised several notches.
This is a must-read for fans of American history.
The Zimmermann Telegram and U.S. entry into WW I May 13, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book, by an eminent historian, greatly enlightened me as to the primary events that caused our entry into WW I. I heretofore had thought that the Lusitania sinking and the resumption of untrestricted submarine warfare were PRIME, while the Zimmermann Telegram was realtively minor and/or a British hoax. However, the revelation of the Zimmermann Telegram "galvanized" U.S. citizens like nothing else could have and the credibility of it was, strangely, even admitted to by Arthur Zimmermann himself. Had always been curious as to just what part the "Telegram" had played and/or the above-mentioned potential for it being a British hoax?
Also, I was appalled at German stupidity and arrogance in thinking their code could NOT be broken. Incredibly, they AGAIN did the same thing in WW II and "The Ultra Secret" thing. People, even of the vaunted intelligence of the Teuton, are still prone to studpidity. For more of this latter, see Mrs. Tuchman's work: "The March of Folly". The Japanese too, were not immune, reference "Magic" intercepts in WW II.
The Second Mexican-American War ? April 20, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the second book by Barbara Tuchman that I've read and once again, her writing skills are manifest. She has taken a seemingly minor document (maybe not all that minor), showing the conception behind it, its transmission to German agents in Mexico, its decoding by British Naval Intelligence agents, and its release to American government officials, and hence we have this captivating and dramatic story. In Tuchman's view, this document was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, which in this case was America and its leaders (most especially Wilson's) reluctance to enter into the First World War.
A cast of scores come to the surface in this book, many of whom I knew little about, from British intelligence figures, German and Mexican agents trying to formulate a plan for alliance, along with Japan, and others from various diplomatic and political spheres of influence from the Allied and Central Powers. As in the Guns of August, I sense her abilities in capturing the drama of the moment and the human elements of the stories. This is a relatively small book, but is choke full of information.
For me, the power of her words and description really started pouring forth from the chapter entitled Trap. Her portrayals of various German diplomatic figures like Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, Ambassador Bernstorff, President Wilson, Walter Hines Page, Balfour and others symbolize her talents in portraying the human elements of the story. The depiction of American naivete on foreign affairs and the dangers posed by the Central Powers came across in this book. For example, how the Americans warmly greeted incoming German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann and how Wilson refused to believe that Germany's declaration of unrestricted U-Boat warfare would deter the Americans efforts to remain neutral; Wilson still wanted to bring the belligerent powers to a settlement, or as Wilson called it, a peace without victory.
Once again, a marvelous work by a wonderful historian.
 Interesting but not compelling given history April 19, 2007
7 out of 27 found this review helpful
Tuchman was a fine historian, however she wrote this book before the expiration of the British Official Secrets Act on the Zimmermann Telegram whereupon it was revealed it was, indeed, a fake concocted by the British Secret Service as a ploy to entice the US into the war. That did not happen until 1966-7. At the time it was distrusted by American opinion, as just that, a British fake. However the sinking of the Lusitannia removed any remaining American doubts as to entry in the Great War. Subsequent to the revelation that the Zimmermann Telegram was a fake, (50 years after the fact) followed the item that the Lusitannia was carrying arms and munitions in her hold. The Germans knew this and announced, via ads in New York papers, their intention to sink her, which they did. Undersea exploration has since borne this out. Both incidents drew the US into the war, both were based on falsehoods. In war, the first casualty is truth. Now, what makes us think 9ll is anything different??
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