The border wall — north of Santa Fe?
We’d be in Mexico had history taken a different turn 100 years ago
Had a secret German plot succeeded in the spring of 1917, the planned construction of President Donald Trump’s border wall would be taking place to the north of Santa Fe, not to the south. We here, in the City Different, would be living in Mexico.
The conspiracy that would have returned New Mexico, along with Arizona and Texas, to Mexico came to light a century ago this month. Because of its map-altering potential, it’s a tale worth recalling.
In February 1917, the Great War raging in Europe for the past 3½ years had killed more than 15 million people and wounded an even greater number. But German leaders were convinced that Great Britain’s resolve was weakening. The annihilation of British youth across the channel and food shortage at home endangered the ruling government and encouraged beliefs among German leaders that the war could be won at last.
To strike a final deadly blow at England, Germany decided it would employ its U-boats to attack all ships in the Atlantic, enemy or neutral ves-
sels, without warning. If the strategy worked, England would be cut off from all supplies and starved into submission by the end of the year.
The inherit danger, however, was that this plan could bring the United States into the war. With its immense wealth and supply of fresh soldiers, the United States would invariably defeat Germany. The new German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman came up with an idea to keep the Americans from entering the war once the U-boats began their attacks.
He composed a coded telegram that he sent to his ambassador in Washington with instructions to relay it to Mexico. He chose this route for his cable because President Woodrow Wilson had authorized Germany’s use of the American telegraph line with the idea the gesture might help bring a peaceful end of the war.
Wilson and the United States government, however, were unaware that the British had tapped into the undersea cable. In what was called “Room 40,” British code breakers translated Zimmerman’s telegram to Mexico. To their horror, they read that Germany was about to launch unrestricted submarine warfare. If this action provoked the United States to enter the war, the German made a startling proposal of an alliance with Mexico.
“Make war together,” said Zimmerman, “make peace together, generous financial support, and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territories in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.”
Obviously, the British wanted to warn the United States of this potential invasion on its southern border. But if the information were conveyed to the United States, it would reveal that the British had been secretly reading all messages on the American cable. Fortunately for England, it obtained a copy of the telegram from a source in Mexico City and was able to present it to the Americans.
Within days, The Associated Press also got a copy and reported the existence of the telegram. BOCHE PLOT REVEALED, announced The Santa Fe New Mexican, TREACHEROUS GERMANS PLAN TO SEIZE ARIZONA TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO BY JAP-MEXICAN AID. At first it was presumed to be a fraud, a ploy to lure the United States into war. But confirmation of its authenticity came rapidly from none other than its author.
The public’s reaction to the news accomplished what the Lusitania’s sinking failed to do two years earlier. The telegram and the German sinking of five American merchant ships the following month gave President Wilson the public’s backing when he asked Congress for and obtained a declaration of war on Germany on April 2, 1917.
Had the Mexicans taken seriously
the idea of regaining some of its territory lost in the Mexican-American War less than 70
years earlier? Seriously enough that President Venustiano Carranza created a military commission to evaluate the plan. The conclusion of the group was that the United States was too strong militarily and Germany’s promise of help too shaky.
In the end, however, Mexico did find a way to benefit from the Zimmerman telegram. Under Wilson, there had been a complete breakdown in diplomatic relations between the two nations. Wilson regarded recent Mexican rulers, including Carranza, as illegitimate and had ordered the military occupation of Veracruz for six months after a minor dispute, dispatching military expeditions humiliatingly deep into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa after his raid into Columbus, N.M.
But on Aug. 31, 1917, the threat posed by the German plot was sufficiently real that Wilson recognized the Carranza government in return for a promise that Mexico would remain neutral in the war.