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The Zimmermann Telegram

by Barbara W. Tuchman

bookshelves: currently-reading, 2026-nonfiction

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read in August 2026

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Mark said: " It is a testimony of Barbara Tuchman’s storytelling skills that she whittles down a potential cast-of-thousands to the few critical players surrounding the seismic-scale drama of a single telegram of 162 words. The large-scale event that is the backd It is a testimony of Barbara Tuchman’s storytelling skills that she whittles down a potential cast-of-thousands to the few critical players surrounding the seismic-scale drama of a single telegram of 162 words. The large-scale event that is the backdrop for Tuchman’s gripping narrative is World War I, and the only outcomes of barely two years of conflict are devasting destruction and catastrophic carnage, in which single battles have killed tens-of-thousands of men, while the gain of ground is measured in negligible feet and inches.

At the start of the story, both sides, the Allied Powers (including Great Britain, France, Russia, and Italy), and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and countries of the Ottoman Empire) are heartily sick of the stubborn stalemate situation. Everyone wants it to end, and naturally, everyone wants to win. The United States at this point remains fiercely neutral, courtesy of President Woodrow Wilson’s noble, but rather disingenuous proposal of “peace without victory.” Something must change.

The two potentially simmering change factors are, of course, America switching from neutrality to engagement; and Germany switching from compliance to international laws to unrestricted U-Boat warfare against all shipping, armed or otherwise. The stunning interception and deciphering of Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann’s telegram by crack codebreakers in England brings everything to the surface.

The essence of Zimmermann’s telegram succinctly suggests that the Mexican government declare war on the United States, and most vitally, recruit Japan into doing the same. This would keep America busy on two fronts: its southern border and the west coast, effectively ensuring ongoing neutrality in the European conflict. Zimmermann’s generosity promises Mexico the right to reconquer and retain lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Of crucial importance, and pivotal in ending America’s neutrality, the telegram gives a specific date, February 1, for its transition to unrestricted warfare on open seas.

When President Wilson learns of the telegram and its content, he declares he is “obliged to believe it,” but still with a heavy, sorrowful heart. He likens taking his country into war as a “crime against civilization,” despite wholehearted support from congress and national unity on the matter—a vastly different sentiment and degree of gravity when compared to the whimsical and thoughtless way in which today’s leaders have taken America into war.

I should confess that my woefully-inadequate knowledge about World War I easily had me falling carelessly into the trap of believing that it was the brutally cruel sinking of the unarmed Lusitania and the loss of over a thousand lives, that dragged America into the conflict. But the Lusitania was sunk in 1915. America entered the war in early 1917, and the Zimmermann telegram made that happen.

Ms. Tuchman’s scholarly account of a critical milestone in American history is less than a couple of hundred pages, but it is information-dense, meticulously factual, and excruciatingly granular in the timing of events, sometimes seemingly small yet massively impactful. The Zimmermann Telegram is one of three volumes in Ms. Tuchman’s Great War Series. The other two volumes are The Guns of August and The Proud Tower…both now on my list.

(I feel obliged to add this footnote: that within the major story of the Zimmermann telegram, Ms. Tuchman gives readers a spellbinding, penetrating, psychological portrait of President Woodrow Wilson. It is a compassionate depiction of a leader with a conscience conflicted between his averred neutrality in the raging war, and his duty to his cabinet, allies, and the American citizenry. He frustrated all of the above by his need for deep, private introspection before making a history-changing decision. But when Germany advertised its intentions to violate long-standing, formal rules of engagement, choice was eclipsed by duty, which Wilson performed expeditiously.) ...more "

Aug 22, 2026 08:46PM · see review