The Zimmerman Telegram

I was reading up on some early cryptographic techniques during the first and second world wars' this weekend and became reacquainted with the famous Zimmerman Telegram. Arthur Zimmerman played an interesting role in the tangled web of espionage and secret communications that lead to the defeat of Germany in WWI. Arthur Zimmerman served as the German Foreign Secretary during the war and he commissioned a note that was sent to the German ambassador in Mexico to persuade Mexico to form an alliance with Germany against the United States. It was a move to weaken the American forces and to buy Germany more time in finish up their campaigns in Europe. The famous note was eventually intercepted by the British, decrypted, and was a driving factor in the US entering the war and the eventual defeat of Germany. The telegraph was eventually released to the American press, Zimmerman in fact admitted to having sent it, and Wilson used it ti lead the United States to war against Germany.

The part of the story that has always interested me was if the British cryptanalysts had not intercepted this communication (not to mention decrypt it in time) how would this chapter in Western history have been different ? The Germans were wearing down the British supply chains and had a clear advantage at sea; Not to mention the United States had no intention of entering the war. Two little known British cryptographers named Montgomery and Grey decrypted the Zimmerman note in less than 1 day and changed the course of history. Makes you wonder how the world would have been different today had it not been for the Zimmerman note and the work of Montgomery and Grey.