Espionage can really make history difficult (1 Viewer)

[Ahsoka]

The Zimmerman Telegram is one example of that. For those who don’t know, the Zimmerman Telegram was sent in 1917 from Germany to Mexico, suggesting to Mexico that if they help Germany by attacking the US, Germany will help them regain territory lost during the Mexican-American War. The telegram was intercepted by Britain in January and quickly decoded, (they had cracked the German code).

But they faced two issues.
1.If they told the truth as to how they got the message, Germans would know they’ve cracked the code and
2. If they told the truth about how they got the message, Americans would be outraged because that means the British are spying on US telegram messages that Americans thought were safe (funny enough, the cable Germany used was offered by the US to Germany as a safe cable for peace options).

So Britain started to go elaborate ruse mode. They waited 6 weeks, tracked down the telegram message in Mexico, showed the US that message, told the US that trusty British agents in Mexico found the message when the German embassy in Mexico received it (after the theoretical German working there had translated the message), and that that was how the message was found. You know, leaving out the details about spying on messages sent through neutral American lines and about knowing the code.

And that was the narrative for decades. As documents became declassified, historians started to piece together that the official story seemed fishy. But for the true version to be accepted in any capacity, you’d have to look to the 1970s or 1980s (depending on scholarly view vs public). That long lasting effect of espionage would be so different if the ruse was uncovered sooner. Just imagine how different Anglo-American relations would be if Americans knew the truth 50 years earlier

 

[Ahsoka]

History taglist:
@LexieBoo @Nyaz @Dreamer_of_Songs @Nina @velvet @TALKing2Myself @ChuuAntics @alo @sick @Moguri

 

[dark_tranquility]

Interesting, esp the telegraph part

 

[Moguri]

who knows how many more lies are not uncovered yet

 

[Ahsoka]

who knows how many more lies are not uncovered yet

Loads The Iranian coup in 1953 was another good example of this. People were piecing together the true story afterwards, but the US public didn’t believe the true story as definitive fact for like 50 years after.