The Greatest Lie

The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one. -Adolf Hitler

On March 3, 1917 Arthur Zimmerman announces the "Zimmerman Telegram" was a forgery made by British Intellegence Agents, widely believed by many Americans. Anti-British sentiment reaches new high's, and many people in America demand war. Past Anti-German propaganda, was now turned against the British. The sinking of the Lusitinia was now the United Kindoms fault because they had failed to protect it. The British continued to deny the Telegram being a fogery, to no avail, and desperatly pleaded with Mexico to reveal that the Telegram had indeed been sent by the Germans.

However, Mexico did no such thing. Mexico which was anti American and anti European felt that they would benefit if the America joined the war. That way more Europeans and Americans would die, and thus kill two birds with one stone. Mexico on the 28th of March revealed that the Telegram sent was about German trade interests in Mexico, and that the British did indeed forge the telegram.

On April the 3rd, President Wilson called for a joint session of Congress to decide wether or not wether they should declare war on the Enete. On April 8th, The House and Senate enthusiastically voted for a Declaration of War on Britain. Before the day was over, American troops were already crossing into Canada. America had entered the Great War.
 
I think the number 1 issue here is why would the American public believe Zimmerman to such an extent that "Anti-British sentiment reaches new highs?"

My understanding is that the only telegraph line between Europe and the United States was routed through Britain, and that the vast majority of news in the US about the Great War came from British sources as a result, meaning that the media in the US had a very anti-German spin. Why would they suddenly start producing propaganda against their own country?
 
My understanding is that the only telegraph line between Europe and the United States was routed through Britain, and that the vast majority of news in the US about the Great War came from British sources as a result, meaning that the media in the US had a very anti-German spin. Why would they suddenly start producing propaganda against their own country?

The British were accused of planting the Zimmerman telegraph to get Americans to join the war with them.
Americans can produce propaganda too....
 
War between Britain and the US is extremely unlikely. There is far more sentiment for the British than the Germans. Plus the US still trades with them and Germany's ports are being blockaded so that would be a pretty dumb move by the Americans. A good thing they wouldn't do it.

You need a POD far earlier than this to weaken American-British ties.
 
Why would the Americans immediately believe the Germans over the Brits? I mean, in OTL they believed the Brits because the Germans admitted to it thus spurring anti-German sentiment. If the Germans lie and say that it's a fake, it pretty much turns into a he said she said situation where nobody knows who to believe. I suppose the lack of anti-German feelings could prevent the US from joining on the side of the Entente, but the only way I can see the incident producing anti-British feelings is if the Germans somehow are able to "prove" that it is a forgery the same way that the German admission of guilt proved it was real.
 
Maybe the POD is that the line isn't through Britain?

Probably unlikely since the British were most likely the ones that laid it to begin with. If it were a French line the French would have blocked all German messages. One of the problems was that the Germans didn't believe that the British would intercept diplomatic wires.
 
War between Britain and the US is extremely unlikely. There is far more sentiment for the British than the Germans.[ /QUOTE]

And more for the French (and latterly Belgians) than for either.

Also, there's still the problem of u-boat warfare. During March, several American mercahntmmen were sunk, three of them on the same day (18th). Discreiting the ZT certainly won't swing opinion to supporting war against he Allies, but would make it easier form Wilson to continue neutral if (a sizeable if) he still wants to.
 
So Wilson one of our greatest Angophile presidents EVER is going to just attack Britain? Why? American business men invested in the Allies to the point that if they Allies lose they will not get their money back.

Is the PoD that Hearst anti-Britain campaign by some miracle wins out against the pro-British ones?
 
It wasn't wilson that was the biggest anglophile, it was his spindoctor edward House, and his influence pushed wilsons pro-anglo attitude much further than it normally would have been.

Now if house would have been outed as a british spy, that could cause a rather strong political reaction.
 
Setting aside the fact that the USA declaring war on the etente is extremley unlikley, what army are they going to invade Canada with? The US army was tiny in 1917 and totaly lacking in modern arms, without an air service to speak of. Its going to take at least two or three years for an army to be built up. Yes the US has the men and yes the US has the industrial potential, but in OTL, they relied almost entirley on the british and french for anything heavier than machine guns it going to take time to design test and then produce their own designs.

As soon as war seems likley the (well equipped and experinced) Canadian expiditonary force is coming back to canda probably backed up by 5-10 British divisions for the first 12-18 months they should be able to easily hold Canada against the US army. By this time the war in europe is probably over due to a negotiated peace. With reduced numbers of allied troops on the western front you dont get the ypres battle and the allies go on the defensive, probably still beat back the german spring 18 offensives, then a peace. You then see alot of etente troops in Canada, then who knows?
 
This all pre-supposes that the British do not do what they had already PLANNED to do. They had always expected a German denial. If worst came to worst, the British government would be forced to expose the means by which the Zimmerman Telegram was obtained, namely by code-breaking. A devastating intelligence loss, true. But against the sight of three million US infantry fight the Germans in France, a very good tradeoff indeed.
 
The premise that historical fact is somehow proven to be false pretty much kills the thread right away.

Further, as usertron2020 notes the British had taken the possibility of Zimmerman denying the telegram's validity into account and planned accordingly, even to the point of accepting that a serious risk to British code breaking was worth having the US in the war as an ally.

The telegram was sent out three different ways, all of which were picked up by the British, including the one routed directly through the US State Department, so there is simply no way to prove it false and such a claim by Zimmerman denying the evidence actually sitting in Wilson's hands while American ships are being sunk will only further infuriate the US.



David S Poepoe, the problem was that the Germans thought the British could never penetrate their codes and had no idea that the British had not only done so conclusively but had also utterly ruined German intelligence by turning the entire German spy network in the UK against Germany.
 
Top