Reply #22: WW I [View All]

[BDW1964]

The sinking of the Lusitania was not the sole or even primary reason for the entrance of the USA into World War I on the Allied side. In fact, we were not an ally, but deliberately termed ourselves as co-belligerents. Germany directly threatened the United States by offering to support Mexico in attacking the USA and reclaiming the entire southwestern states, to include Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and California. This was discovered when the English intercepted a transmission of a diplomatic telegraph message, known since then as the Zimmermann Telegram. How realistic this initiative of the Germans actually was from our perspective 92 years later is besides the point. At the time, Americans took it very literally indeed, as there was recent and direct experience of Mexican incursions into the USA and attacks on American towns and homesteads.