Robert Lansing, Esq., de facto Secretary of State, authorizes the release of the “Zimmerman Telegram,” a secret German communique that had been intercepted and decoded by the United Kingdom.  In the telegram Arthur Zimmerman, Deputy Secretary of State of the Empire of Germany, instructs Heinrich von Eckardt, Ambassador to Mexico, that he is to propose an alliance between Germany and Mexico should the United states enter the Great War (World War I) on the side of the allies.  In exchange Germany would guarantee the return of the Federal enclaves of Arizona and New Mexico, as well as the republic of texas.

       NOTES:

• At the time Mexico was in its seventh year of civil war, and in no position to mount an offensive against the U.s.  Furthermore, Germany, half a world away, was no position promise territorial acquisitions it could not deliver on.