Jumbo's Hide, Elvis's Ride, and the Tooth of Buddha

by Harvey Rachlin

  But with its explosive industrial growth and dwindling frontier after the Civil War, the United States in the late nineteenth century took its own course of imperialism, exercising control over islands in the Pacific and Caribbean and going to war with Spain to force its military presence out of Cuba. With the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in the early 1900s, the United States warned that it would exercise international police powers in the Western Hemisphere in flagrant cases of wrongdoing or impotence that “results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society” in any Latin American countries, a position put into effect over the coming years in such nations as the Dominican Republic and Haiti. With the outbreak of World War I, Americans retreated to their traditional policy of isolationism and determined to focus not on the battles on the other side of the world but on issues that directly affected them at home and in the hemisphere, as in Mexico, whose political instability strained its relations with the United States.

  British Naval Intelligence officers deciphered Arthur Zimmermann's telegram, and it caused an uproar in the United States.

  But as the war raged on the oceans and in Europe, events occurred that tugged at the emotions and judgment of Americans—and their elected officials. America’s neutral commerce on the seas was shattered by blatant violations on the part of the warring nations. The British navy, which controlled the Atlantic Ocean, put up blockades, directed neutral vessels to their ports, and appropriated cargoes, preventing shipments from reaching Germany. Germany initiated a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, firing not only on enemy warships but on merchant and passenger vessels as well, in the belief that the latter vessels could be carrying munitions to Germany’s enemies. President Wilson had warned that firing on neutral ships carrying civilian passengers would result in retribution, but the Germans did not heed the president’s words. In May 1915 they sunk the British liner Lusitania, taking the lives of some one thousand passengers.

  Still, America clung to neutrality and refrained from choosing a side and entering the war. On U.S. shores, belligerents carried out actions to enlist American support. In a multitude of forums, from leaflets and cartoons to public addresses, word of mouth, and much more, the British propaganda mill carried on a widespread campaign designed to paint the Germans as barbarians determined to stamp out liberty and freedom. The Germans likewise fomented a propaganda campaign in the United States, but, conducted at a greater remove from American culture and sentiment than the British, not to mention under the cloud of bad press the Germans received for many of their acts of warfare, it failed to garner much American sympathy.

  Although the United States had business ties to the Allies through exports and loans, England’s interference with American shipping caused friction between the countries. The sundry German transgressions against America caused greater enmity. But through it all President Wilson—and the American public—maintained their resolve to steer clear of European embroilment. Wilson endeavored to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the shipping problem (he dispatched an aide, Colonel Edward House, to Europe for the purpose), and even after Germany decided to revive its policy of unselective submarine attacks, Wilson proclaimed that nothing short of overt belligerency, such as destroying passenger vessels without warning, would pull the United States into the war. Then an incident occurred—sensitive enough that the details of its unfolding had to be disguised—that sparked a public reaction of such intense outrage that it spurred President Wilson to take action.

  On January 16, 1917, the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, dispatched a message via a U.S. State Department cable route to the German ambassador to the United States, Count Johann von Bernstorff, requesting him to forward it to the German ambassador to Mexico, Von Eckhardt. Von Eckhardt delivered the message to the Mexican president, but along the way the British intercepted the telegram.

  The British had been secretly intercepting and deciphering German diplomatic cables for some time and keeping the information strictly confidential. But in this particular instance the message was so hot that British authorities turned it over to the U.S. government with the understanding that the British did not want it revealed that they had intercepted and deciphered the cable, lest it become known they had the capability to do so. The British also feared raising the suspicion that they had fabricated the telegram as a means to get the United States into the war.

  After it was decoded, the text of the telegram was turned over by British authorities to the American Embassy in London. U.S. ambassador Walter Page then forwarded the message to President Wilson and the U.S. secretary of state.

  The decoded German message was incorporated in a telegram dated February 24, 1917, which read:

  Balfour has handed me the text of a cipher telegram from Zimmermann, German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to the German Minister to Mexico, which was sent via Washington and relayed by Bernstorff on January nineteenth. You can probably obtain a copy of the text relayed by Bernstorff from the cable office in Washington. The first group is the number of the telegram, one hundred and thirty, and the second is thirteen thousand and forty-two, indicating the number of the code used. The last group but two is ninety-seven thousand five hundred and fifty-six, which is Zimmermann’s signature. I shall send you by mail a copy of the cipher text and of the de-code into German and meanwhile I give you the English translation as follows:

  We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the President’s attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace. Signed, ZIMMERMANN.

  The receipt of this information has so greatly exercised the British government that they have lost no time in communicating it to me to transmit to you, in order that our Government may be able without delay to make such disposition as may be necessary in view of the threatened invasion of our territory.

  According to a strictly confidential paragraph in Ambassador Page’s telegram, the British were able to break the German codes by gaining access to a secret printed source:

  Early in the war, the British Government obtained possession of a copy of the German cipher code used in the above message and have made it their business to obtain copies of Bernstorff’s cipher telegrams to Mexico, amongst others, which are sent back to London and deciphered here. This accounts for their being able to decipher this telegram from the German Government to their representative in Mexico and also for the delay from January nineteenth until now in their receiving the information. This system has hitherto been a jealously guarded secret and is only divulged now to you by the British Government in view of the extraordinary circumstances and their friendly feeling towards the United States. They earnestly request that you will keep the source of your information and the British Government’s method of obtaining it profoundly secret but they put no prohibition on the publication of Zimmermann’s telegram itself. …

  The text of Zimmermann’s telegram was released to the American news media and published in newspapers on March 1, 1917, the cover story being that the U.S. government had intercepted the telegram at a Galveston, Texas, telegraph office to which it had been transmitted, and from which it was to be relayed to the German ambassador to Mexico, Von Eckhardt. As a result of the incendiary message that Germany would help Mexico recover its lost terri
tories—three states of the United States of America—there resulted a media storm and public outrage. Aware of the threat to America’s safety if the Central Powers defeated the Allies, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany on April 2, which it did four days later, on April 6, 1917.

  Many causes were at the root of America’s entry into World War I, significantly Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. But there is no doubt that an important catalyst to the United States taking up arms against the Central Powers was the provocative telegram sent in January 1917 by the German government’s foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann.

  LOCATION: National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland.

  THE FOURTEEN POINTS

  DATE: 1918.

  WHAT IT IS: President Woodrow Wilson’s program for world peace, announced in an address to Congress ten months before World War I ended.

  WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: There are several drafts of the Fourteen Points, including a shorthand version and typed drafts with corrections made by Wilson in pencil. One of the typewritten versions has some of its pages cut and pasted together so the pages are of different lengths.

  To the casual observer, the marks on the small paper sheets look like nothing more than a bunch of meaningless squiggles and symbols, but they were inscribed in the hope that they would be nothing less than a blueprint for world peace, an antidote to the war that was tearing civilization apart in the second decade of the twentieth century. From 1914 to 1917, nations all over the world declared war on each other, fighting so harshly and brutally that millions of people lost their lives. War continued to rage and an armistice was badly needed, but the opposing forces were ideologically far apart. Was the unreadable blueprint some sort of secret code? An encrypted strategic plan shared among the top leaders of the Allies? No, it was simply Woodrow Wilson’s original version of his dream for world peace—written in shorthand.

  World War I had its roots in the nationalism of the nineteenth century, which resulted in the unification of provinces and states and the establishment of empires such as the German empire, the unified nation of Italy, and the Austrian empire. Leaders of powerful countries sought wars with other nations so that nearby states would join forces with them against a common enemy, and subsequently merge into a single, unified power.

  Such was the case with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, pursued by the Prussian chief minister, Otto von Bismarck, who, by enticing France into war—and invading the country, later gaining the iron-rich provinces of Alsace and Lorraine in a treaty—inspired the south German states to join forces with his country, creating a united Germany of which Bismarck declared the king of Prussia, William I, the emperor. National leaders continued to pursue imperialistic policies, forging political alliances with various countries to strengthen their power but leaving defeated nations embittered over shattered treaties and the forced ceding of their territories. Beginning in the early 1900s, one crisis after another made Europe a hotbed of tension. Germany clashed with France over Morocco. Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia despite Serbia’s protests. Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other countries desired independence. France wanted to reclaim Alsace and Lorraine. The Balkan nations of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro, backed by Russia, fought Turkey. A conference was called to address the clash and a new country, Albania, was formed as a result of Austrian demands, the intention being to deny Serbia an approach to the Mediterranean and keep it from growing strong enough to threaten the Austrian empire.

  Soon a chain of events occurred that was to ignite World War I. A young Serbian gunman, a member of a secret society supported by the Serbian army, which wanted the Austro-Hungarian empire dismantled, assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sofia, at Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. Subsequently Austria, with the full support of Germany, made various demands on Serbia, to most of which the latter acquiesced. But when Serbia gathered its armed forces, Austria, on July 28, 1914, declared war on the country. Russia then mobilized an army, leading Germany to declare war on Serbia, Russia, and soon afterward, France. World War I was in ugly bloom, and through the end of the year, numerous declarations of war were made, with such countries as England, Montenegro, and Japan jumping into the fray. The Central Powers, beginning with Austria-Hungary and Germany, later joined by Turkey and Bulgaria, fought the Allies—first France, Serbia, England, Japan, and Belgium, subsequently bolstered by Italy, Romania, the United States, Panama, Cuba, Greece, China, Brazil, and other countries.

  From the outbreak of World War I, President Wilson determined to stay neutral. On August 18, 1914, he made known his intention of keeping the United States out of the war with his Proclamation of Neutrality. But as the conflict grew, events took place that angered the American people and caused Wilson to change his position. Among these was the sinking of American ships by German submarines (as well as the British vessel Lusitania, with many Americans aboard), efforts by Germans to blow up buildings, bridges, and other structures in the United States, the Zimmermann telegram, and the general threat to the country’s safety if the Central Powers defeated the Allies. In early April 1917 the president asked Congress to declare war on Germany.

  Congress debated the proposal and two days later, on April 6, 1917, approved the declaration. The War Resolution document, already signed by Vice President Thomas R. Marshall and Speaker of the House Champ Clark, was carried by Rudolph Forster, the Senate’s sergeant of arms, to the White House to be signed by the president. It was early in the afternoon, and the president was eating lunch with his wife, Edith Boiling Gait Wilson, in the state dining room. Wilson quickly finished his meal and went with his wife and another dining companion to the office of Ike Hoover, the chief White House usher. The president sat down and requested a pen; Edith suggested he sign the proclamation with a gold pen (Woodrow Wilson House, Washington, D.C.) he had given her. The somber-faced president read over the War Resolution, then put his name to the document, bringing the United States of America into World War I. Ike Hoover signaled the Navy Department, and messages were sent out to all U.S. warships that the country was now at war.

  The draft would find some 10 million American men registering. It would be some time before troops were dispatched into action, and it was not until almost three months later, on June 26, that the first American soldiers arrived in Europe, landing in France. Troops of the American Expeditionary Force first engaged in combat on October 23, 1917. The brass casing of the first shell fired by American soldiers against the enemy in World War I survives (Woodrow Wilson House, Washington, D.C). The thirteen-and-a-half-inch-long casing was picked up by soldiers; Major General William L. Sibert, commander of the First Division of the American Expeditionary Force in France, sent it to chief of staff General Tasker H. Bliss, because, as Sibert wrote, “it occurred to me that this would be an acceptable souvenir to the President.” The general sent it to Washington along with a letter in which he documented its authenticity and requested that it be given to President Wilson.

  In March 1917, the Russian government and tsar were overthrown by liberals who had been fighting on the side of the Allies; but because of fatigue and lack of food, supplies, and arms, the liberal forces withdrew from the conflict. This opened the way for German soldiers to capture many Russian cities and territories. In late 1917, however, the Bolshevik Revolution occurred, in which working-class people and soldiers took control of Moscow and Petrograd, overthrowing the provisional Russian government. This new government, with Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Leon Trotsky as its leaders, discontinued fighting with Germany and tried to negotiate a treaty, but the Germans refused to relinquish the territories they had captured. Still, the revolution of the Bolsheviks—who wanted an armistice and foreign evacuation of their land—stopped the Russian war effort.

  With the goal of inducing the Central Powers to end their hostilities by promising an equitable world peace, Woodrow Wilson devised what became known as
his Fourteen Points program for peace, which he wrote in the White House. Many of the points had already been formulated by the president by the time the United States entered the war, but input came also from Colonel Edward House, who had been Wilson’s emissary in Europe over the previous two years, trying to determine what needed to be done to achieve a successful peace. In an address to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918, President Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points address.

  Wilson summarized the progress of peace talks up to that time. The parley at Brest-Litovsk between representatives of the Central Powers and Russia, held for the purpose of determining whether there could be a peace conference, had resulted in confusion, with the Russians asserting the terms on which they would accept peace, and the Central Powers presenting a basis for settlement which, as Wilson characterized it, “proposed no concessions at all either to the sovereignty of Russia or to the preferences of the populations with whose fortunes it dealt.” With the Russians insisting that the conferences be held with open doors for all the world to hear, Wilson asked rhetorically if the world were listening to the liberal parties of Germany who supported peace, or to those who demanded subjugation.

  The Central Powers, Wilson noted, had once more declared their war objectives and had challenged their enemies to state what they would deem a fair settlement. “There is no good reason why that challenge should not be responded to,” Wilson stated, “and responded to with the utmost candor.” The Russian people, shattered and helpless in this debacle against the unrelenting and pitiless might of Germany, Wilson continued, were calling for clarity in objectives and terms. Despite their tenuous position, they would not lower their principles. The Russian people had stated with a straightforward and generous spirit what they thought was “humane and honorable for them to accept,” declared Wilson, and had called for others to say what their own desires were. Wilson expressed the hope that America might help the Russian people obtain freedom and peace.