Poem ~ Broken Isolationism - Monday, 12 March 1917 - Thursday, 15 March 1917

Source: File: Woodrow Wilson is sworn in to his second term as President of the United States by Chief Justice Edward Douglass White. See an original image at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WilsonInauguration1917.jpg> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Sunday 4 March 1917, the day

President Wilson made an oath

To enter a second term in post.

Entering a more somber period

Of his presidency - expectancy

Awaited an inaugural speech.

The talk centered around an

'Armed Neutrality Bill,' when

President Wilson would gain

Powers, to arm all merchant

Vessels, against the piracy

Being carried out by Germany.

96 members of the senate

Saw total of 83 supporting

Moves to armed neutrality -

For all intent and purposes

America was acting out war,

As seen in correspondence.

While from reliable sources

Representatives, Senators

Any kind of declaration lay

In the hands of congress;

The Representatives house

Of 416 votes saw 403 united.

They favoured 'Armed Ship

Bill,' to note how events

And the timing of, perhaps

Declaring war, had become

Shadowed by fact in armed

Ships, making a declaration.

An isolationism that USA

Had maintained for more

Than two years had altered,

After a German submarine

Covered the great distance

Of sailing the Atlantic ocean.

A new reality had been born,

To show how United States of

America was part of the world.

Overriding the people's beliefs

In refraining from any meddling

In European continent's affairs.

With the revealed plot aimed

Towards USA - to set attempts

To utilize Japanese forces on

An Mexican platform, intent

To invade American soil - akin

To the 1914 Belgium invasion.

A German telegram effectively

Declared themselves as enemy

To the USA, sentiments were

Swiftly stirred to fight on allies

Side - rather than to fight as a

Completely separate nation.

The propaganda machine

Of Germany within the USA

Reached a crossroads - they

Could not deny discovery

Of the German plot - though

Newspapers attempted a ploy.

New Yorker, Staats-Zeitung

And Gaelic American, gave

The idea to their readers that

The Zimmermann Note was

In fact an English forgery,

Planted to create conflict.

Flying in the face of Berlin,

Admissions and sentiments

Inflamed a majority among

People of America, which

Awaited Vienna’s response

In supporting Germany.

Yet the feeling of situation

Being all out of proportion

To lay in a certain minority -

If memebers in the senate

Might block the bill, Woodrow

Wilson could override them.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: Second Inaugural Address of Woodrow Wilson. Yale Law School - The Avalon Project. Available at: <http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson2.asp> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Source: File: U.S. Presidential Inaugurations: Woodrow Wilson. Available at: <https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/inaugurations/wilson/index.html> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Source: File: The Washington times., March 05, 1917, Complete Afternoon Edition, Image 1. Available at: <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1917-03-05/ed-1/seq-1/> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

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Poem ~ Zimmerman: Telegram Of War - Friday, 9 March 1917 - Sunday, 11 March 1917

Source: File: Zimmermann Telegram as Received by the German Ambassador to Mexico - NARA - 302025.jpg. See original images at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram> [Accessed 9 March 2017]

Alongside the greatest neutral country,

United States of America, a small cousin

Kept an ear to the door - maybe not to spy

But more a watchful eye, so that January

1917, The Naval Intelligence Service

Made something of a discovery.

At Room 39 of the admiralty on January

19 1917, intercepted a telegram - receiver

Was Heinrich von Eckardt being Germany's

Ambassador in Mexico - the sender Arthur

Zimmermann, German Empire's foreign

Secretary; a blatant coded message.

The Western Union Telegram had,

Since 1856, used an amazing technology

Whereby electrical impulses sent through wire,

Tapped out in Morse and typed onto a form

To be hand delivered - Naval Intelligence

Monitoring made surprise discovery.

Headed by normal Western Union 

Logo, the received typed form sent via

Galveston for German Legation, Mexico city.

Ten uneven columns of grouped numbers;

3,4 or 5 sets, dated January 19 1917

And signed 'BERNSTORFF.'

The telegram conveyance travelled by

Galveston Texas, to possess the stamp

Of German Ambassador to the United States;

J.H. von Bernstoff - the note taken on by

Room 40, and the official secret office

Of cryptographic workers.

In order to hide potential interception,

Later claims how the message took three

Routes - whereas only one had been used;

The message sent in Berlin to US embassy,

Via diplomatic cable - first to Copenhagen,

Then London and onto Washington.

The transatlantic cable being only

Possible way - as Britain had severed

German cables in 1914 - Swedish cables

And those of the US converged at relay

Station of Porthcurno, finally boosted

To travel across the ocean.

It was at Porthcurno that all traffic

Was copied by the British intelligence.

Germany's usage of the cable was agreed

By US President for diplomatic reasons,

To work for a peaceful solution

In negotiating war's end.

Room 40 code-breaker analysts

Set to work - conditions having been

That Germany using cable, telegrams could 

Not be in code; yet the US Ambassador

In Berlin J. Gerrard, was persuaded

To transmit the coded form.

Within hours, Nigel de Grey in Room 40

Had deciphered part of the code, whereby

They had acquired German systems 13040

And 0075 ciphers - William Hall, room 40

Chief, refused to release the message

For duration of another 3 weeks.

Decipher's Grey and Montgomery

Completed the decryption - the issue

Being any release would show how British

Had intercepted confidential American

Cables and expose the fact Britain 

Held Germany's secret codes.

To maintain secrecy, a cover story

Was devised as to how the Zimmerman

Cable came into their possession - to convince

The States the telegram was real and fact

They had discovered the true content

Of the telegram's suggestion.

An agent in Mexico 'Mr. H' would

Bribe a telegraph agency employee

For a copy - weighing up the risk of US entry

Into war and Germany realizing capture

Of German ciphertext codes being

Revealed, was well worth it.

To cover the cover up America

Agreed to the official story, how British

Agents gained the deciphered text in Mexico.

The 13040 code then given to America,

To make their own verification

Of the coded telegram.

The Zimmerman Telegram content

Revealed German intent, conveyed by

The Foreign secretary to Eckardt, who read

In disbelief - given over by Room 40 chief

To Edward Bell, Britain’s US secretary,

Yet convinced it was a forgery.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: Wikipedia: Zimmermann Telegram. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram> [Accessed 9 March 2017]

Source: File: Ask History: What was the Zimmermann Telegram? Available at: <http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-was-the-zimmermann-telegram> [Accessed 9 March 2017]

Source: File: National Archives: The Zimmermann Telegram. Available at: <https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/zimmermann> [Accessed 9 March 2017]

Source: File: The Sun THE MESSAGE THAT CHANGED HISTORY. What is The Zimmerman Telegram and how did it lead to America joining the allies in World War One? Available at: <https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2633708/how-zimmerman-telegram-changed-history/> [Accessed 9 March 2017]

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Poem ~ Sussex Pledge Broken - Wednesday, 7 March 1917- Thursday, 8 March 1917

Source: File: torpedoed Cross-channel ferry Sussex at Boulogne, March 1916. The entire forepart of the ship was destroyed in the attack. See an original image at: <http://study.com/academy/lesson/sussex-pledge-definition-lesson.html> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Within hours of the Laconia's loss, survivor

Reporter Floyd Gibbons of Chicago Tribune,

Composed his account of certain night, February

25 1917 - over the next few days newspaper

Debates expressed American opinions.

Only 11 months before a diplomatic crisis 

Had threatened America's neutrality; German
UB 29 in a grave error of judgment, had attacked 
What was believed to be a Mine Sweeper - 
A daily passenger ferry left Folkestone.

The situation at sea had seen declared

War zones; German frustrations at land-war

Stalemate turned towards the sea - from 1916

Unrestricted U Boat policy of attacks were

Made against shipping, though restricted.

The Lusitania that had been torpedoed

In May 1915 had initially riled America with

The deaths of 128 Americans - in order to pacify

USA, Germany curbed U-boat attacks; armed

Merchant ships again valid targets by 1916.

March 1916 the Sussex carried civilians;

Being a cross channel ferry sighted by UB 29

Believed to be a mine layer the ferry was targeted.

The Sussex did not sink yet damage was heavy;

Amid the 80 casualties were 25 Americans.

President Woodrow Wilson's reaction

Was a threat to cut off all diplomacy with

Germany - actions were swift to Wilson's angry

April speech - on 4 May came a promise

With Germany's 'Sussex Pledge.'

The Sussex Pledge promised that no

Passenger ships would be targeted - while

Merchant ships would only be sunk; after being

Searched for weaponry passengers and crew

Would be made safe - rescinded by 1917.

Germany confidently believed that

They might win the war swiftly by an act

At sea, whereby unrestricted warfare would
Defeat allied forces, before any chance

Of the USA joining in conflict.

The Laconia attack sparked debate,

As daily American newspapers endorsed

The Governments view, to see the Laconia

Sinking as an overt act - such event

Were changing opinions in USA.

Tuesday 27 February an address

Made by President Wilson saw mixed

Reactions, about ambiguous nature of armed

Neutrality; 'peace at all costs' had then

Been the central policy of USA.

President Woodrow Wilson, along

With legal advisor Robert Lansing, met

To confer how blatantly Germany had gone

Against their word of the 'Sussex Pledge,'

Resulting in a new congress policy.

A quote from the New York Times

Called on all Americans to defend their

Liberties of the nation - a right to sail the seas

Securely and without risk - any surrender

Would show a nation lacking courage.

Debates in arming of American shipping

Were yet to be tested - to stretch the mind

How America might enter a war centered purely 

In Europe - President Wilson believed only

An invasion of the US would cause war.

Only time might tell any future 
Direction; in the meantime all American

Consular officers, along with all diplomats,

Started a process of leaving Austria,

Breaking with the central powers.

At the foot of America on Mexican 

Border, stretching from Tijuana across

To Brownsville, had been brewing a line

Of adversity - although regarding war

The country shared USA neutrality.

Mexico itself was in the throws

Of lengthy revolution - with strained

Politics openly made the hispanic country

An ideal sideline for German intent -

To entice Venustiano Carranza.

The President of Mexico held key

To deflect the USA; the Zimmerman

Telegram decoded message had revealed

German intent to restart their submarine

Warfare, to curtail 'Sussex Pledge.'

Ideal was that America remained

Neutral - if this did not happen then

Germany proposed a Mexico alliance -

The carrot being financial support

For regaining all lost territories.

Arizona, Texas and New Mexico taken

In the 1848 Mexican cession in the treaty

Of Guadalupe Hidalgo; von Eckardt was given

Free reign to gain Mexico as an ally,
By a settlement to retake territory.

Von Eckardt instructions was to distract 

President's attention; that in a few months

England would be compelled to make peace.

'Make war together make peace together,'

Was motto of an alliance with Mexico.

Although the telegram kept options

Open, von Eckardt was requested to use

His initiative; also to mediate some agreement

With Japan, who was then fighting alongside

The allied powers; signed Zimmerman.

Strains of mutual dislike lay all around;

America was anti Mexican, with element

Of anti British - with anti Germany in Mexico

Was anti America - German held hopes

For a Mexico-American war to break.

So a scene was set - with the 'Sussex

Pledge' trashed, to see by start of March
Defensive arms to be carried by American ships.

A direct result of overt act; diplomacy ties

With Germany fell - time might tell.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: US Department Of State: American Entry into World War I, 1917. Available at: <https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwi/82205.htm> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Source: File: Wikipedia: Sussex Pledge. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_pledge> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Source: File: The First World War, East Sussex. The Sussex Pledge. Available at: <http://www.eastsussexww1.org.uk/the-sussex-pledge/> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

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