WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.020 Welcome to the deep dive. We are really thrilled 00:00:03.020 --> 00:00:04.919 to have you with us today. Yeah, thanks for joining 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:06.940 us. We've got a fascinating one today. We really 00:00:06.940 --> 00:00:10.140 do, because today we are looking at a piece of 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:13.800 history that reads exactly like a Hollywood espionage 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:16.480 thriller. But every single detail actually happened. 00:00:16.679 --> 00:00:19.859 Exactly. Today's mission is exploring a single 00:00:19.859 --> 00:00:23.280 Wikipedia article concerning one of those, well, 00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:25.519 consequential documents of the 20th century. 00:00:26.039 --> 00:00:28.920 The Zimmerman Telegram, a massively important 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:31.660 piece of paper. Truly. We are going to uncover 00:00:31.660 --> 00:00:36.020 how a single intercepted 160 word coded message 00:00:36.020 --> 00:00:39.380 in 1917 just completely altered the course of 00:00:39.380 --> 00:00:41.560 global history and, you know, pulled the United 00:00:41.560 --> 00:00:44.119 States directly into World War One. Right. And 00:00:44.119 --> 00:00:46.000 for you listening, the source material we're 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.420 working from today is absolutely packed with 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:51.859 real world spycraft, cryptographic triumphs and 00:00:51.859 --> 00:00:55.240 some truly staggering. diplomatic blunders. To 00:00:55.240 --> 00:00:58.159 put it mildly. OK, let's unpack this. Set the 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:00.920 scene for us. What exactly is the context surrounding 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:03.420 this infamous telegram? And why was the world 00:01:03.420 --> 00:01:06.579 on such a knife edge in early 1917? Well, to 00:01:06.579 --> 00:01:08.980 understand the sheer gravity of this telegram, 00:01:09.239 --> 00:01:11.879 you really have to put yourself in January 1917. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:16.359 We are deep into the grinding, brutal stalemate 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:19.340 of World War One. The trench warfare era. Right. 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:21.840 The trenches in Europe have barely moved. Millions 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:24.719 have died. And the German empire is feeling the 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:28.379 squeeze of this massive British naval blockade. 00:01:28.540 --> 00:01:30.219 So they're getting desperate. Very desperate. 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:33.180 So the German high demand prepares to make a 00:01:33.180 --> 00:01:36.730 massive, deeply risky strategic move. They plan 00:01:36.730 --> 00:01:39.829 to resume unrestricted submarine warfare on February 00:01:39.829 --> 00:01:42.269 1st. Which essentially means taking the gloves 00:01:42.269 --> 00:01:44.069 completely off in the Atlantic Ocean, right? 00:01:44.489 --> 00:01:46.930 Precisely. Unrestricted submarine warfare means 00:01:46.930 --> 00:01:49.810 German U -boats will sink any ship they encounter 00:01:49.810 --> 00:01:52.109 in the Atlantic War Zone. Any ship at all? Any 00:01:52.109 --> 00:01:54.540 ship. including neutral passenger and merchant 00:01:54.540 --> 00:01:56.719 vessels. I mean, if it has a propeller and it's 00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:58.519 heading toward Britain, they're going to torpedo 00:01:58.519 --> 00:02:00.620 it. Even if it's flying the American flag. Even 00:02:00.620 --> 00:02:03.359 then, the German leadership believes this ruthless 00:02:03.359 --> 00:02:06.500 total war tactic is the only way to starve Britain 00:02:06.500 --> 00:02:09.099 of supplies. To force them to the negotiating 00:02:09.099 --> 00:02:11.370 table. Yeah, within a few months, hopefully. 00:02:11.810 --> 00:02:14.330 But there is a massive catch to this plan. They 00:02:14.330 --> 00:02:16.669 know the US is going to hate it. Right. They 00:02:16.669 --> 00:02:19.629 know that blowing up American civilian and merchant 00:02:19.629 --> 00:02:22.729 ships will almost certainly force the neutral 00:02:22.729 --> 00:02:25.189 United States. Which has this massive industrial 00:02:25.189 --> 00:02:27.949 base. Exactly. To declare war on Germany. So 00:02:27.949 --> 00:02:30.669 they are deliberately preparing to poke the bear. 00:02:30.870 --> 00:02:34.120 Yes. But they needed a contingency plan for when 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:37.500 the U .S. inevitably got angry and mobilized. 00:02:37.780 --> 00:02:40.580 So how does Arthur Zimmerman fit into this desperate 00:02:40.580 --> 00:02:43.180 situation? This is where Arthur Zimmerman, the 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:45.219 state secretary in the German Foreign Office, 00:02:45.419 --> 00:02:48.580 makes an incredibly audacious move. OK. On January 00:02:48.580 --> 00:02:52.240 17th, he dispatches a highly secret, heavily 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:55.539 coded telegram to Heinrich von Eckert, who was 00:02:55.539 --> 00:02:57.539 the German ambassador stationed in Mexico at 00:02:57.539 --> 00:02:59.659 the time. Right. And the pitch he makes to the 00:02:59.659 --> 00:03:01.939 Mexican government in this message is just breathtaking 00:03:01.939 --> 00:03:04.520 in its scope. It really is. Zimmerman proposes 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:06.599 that if the United States appears certain to 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:09.639 abandon its neutrality and enter the war, Ambassador 00:03:09.639 --> 00:03:11.539 Eckert should approach the Mexican government 00:03:11.539 --> 00:03:14.379 with a proposal for a formal military alliance. 00:03:14.659 --> 00:03:17.139 And he isn't just asking for moral support either. 00:03:17.259 --> 00:03:19.719 Not at all. Zimmerman is offering generous financial 00:03:19.719 --> 00:03:23.740 support for Mexico to actively make war against 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:27.319 the United States. And the prize for Mexico is 00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:30.520 huge. Yeah. Germany says that after the war is 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:33.879 won, Mexico will get to reconquer its lost territories. 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:37.639 He specifically lists Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:40.340 It's wild. And the telegram even goes a step 00:03:40.340 --> 00:03:42.979 further. It instructs the Mexican president to 00:03:42.979 --> 00:03:45.879 invite Japan to instantly join this alliance, 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:48.900 asking Mexico to mediate between Germany and 00:03:48.900 --> 00:03:51.699 Japan to bring them into the fold against America. 00:03:51.900 --> 00:03:54.680 If we connect this to the bigger picture, Germany's 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:57.400 motivations here are quite calculated, even if 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:00.199 the execution was deeply flawed. How so? Well, 00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:02.240 Germany had long sought to incite a conflict 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:04.219 between Mexico and the United States. Right. 00:04:04.360 --> 00:04:06.939 Why? Because a hot war on the North American 00:04:06.939 --> 00:04:09.120 continent would tie down the American military. 00:04:09.129 --> 00:04:11.389 That makes sense. If the U .S. Army is fighting 00:04:11.389 --> 00:04:14.569 a massive border war in the Southwest, they physically 00:04:14.569 --> 00:04:17.089 cannot export arms, munitions, and eventually 00:04:17.089 --> 00:04:19.230 troops across the Atlantic to help the European 00:04:19.230 --> 00:04:21.569 allies. It's a massive distraction technique. 00:04:21.769 --> 00:04:24.689 Just keep America busy in its own backyard. Exactly. 00:04:25.029 --> 00:04:27.629 And the Zimmerman Telegram wasn't an isolated, 00:04:27.889 --> 00:04:30.810 out of the blue idea. The source material highlights 00:04:30.810 --> 00:04:33.810 several previous German provocations aimed at 00:04:33.810 --> 00:04:35.990 keeping the U .S. distracted. Right. There were 00:04:35.990 --> 00:04:38.470 prior attempts. Yes. For example, there was the 00:04:38.350 --> 00:04:41.870 1914 Ipiranga incident where German ships aided 00:04:41.870 --> 00:04:44.529 in arming Mexican factions. I remember reading 00:04:44.529 --> 00:04:48.970 about that. Then, in 1915, a German naval intelligence 00:04:48.970 --> 00:04:52.290 officer named Franz von Rintelen actually handed 00:04:52.290 --> 00:04:56.329 Victoriano Huerta $12 million to try and incite 00:04:56.329 --> 00:04:59.189 a border war. $12 million back then was a fortune. 00:04:59.350 --> 00:05:01.889 A massive sum. And beyond Mexico, there were 00:05:01.889 --> 00:05:04.569 even German saboteurs actively operating inside 00:05:04.569 --> 00:05:06.930 North America. Oh, like the explosions. Right. 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:10.060 An agent named Lothar Vitske, who was based in 00:05:10.060 --> 00:05:12.740 Mexico City, later claimed responsibility for 00:05:12.740 --> 00:05:16.100 the massive March 1917 munitions explosion at 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:18.560 the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California. 00:05:18.860 --> 00:05:21.699 He was also heavily suspected in the infamous 00:05:21.699 --> 00:05:24.699 Black Tom explosion in New Jersey in 1916. Which 00:05:24.699 --> 00:05:26.939 destroyed millions of pounds of American ammunition 00:05:26.939 --> 00:05:30.399 destined for Europe. Right. So Germany was actively, 00:05:30.759 --> 00:05:33.379 aggressively trying to light a fire in America's 00:05:33.379 --> 00:05:36.040 backyard. And from the German perspective, tensions 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:38.860 were already incredibly high on the U .S.-Mexico 00:05:38.860 --> 00:05:41.879 border. Very high. General John J. Pershing had 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:45.079 just spent the better part of 1916 leading U 00:05:45.079 --> 00:05:47.779 .S. troops into Mexico to try and capture Pancho 00:05:47.779 --> 00:05:50.800 Villa. And completely failed. Exactly. So the 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:52.459 Germans are watching this and thinking, well, 00:05:52.500 --> 00:05:55.279 Mexico might actually go for this. It wasn't 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:58.569 a totally crazy thought to them. But the logistics 00:05:58.569 --> 00:06:01.069 of how this telegram actually gets from Berlin 00:06:01.069 --> 00:06:04.730 to the German embassy in Mexico is just a massive 00:06:04.730 --> 00:06:07.529 irony. How did they physically send it? The transmission 00:06:07.529 --> 00:06:10.149 method is perhaps the most glaring strategic 00:06:10.149 --> 00:06:12.610 error in this entire saga. It's unbelievable. 00:06:12.829 --> 00:06:16.129 At the very outbreak of the war in 1914, Britain 00:06:16.129 --> 00:06:18.970 did something incredibly smart. They dredged 00:06:18.970 --> 00:06:22.069 up and physically cut Germany's international 00:06:22.069 --> 00:06:24.790 telegraph cables. A direct secure transmission 00:06:24.790 --> 00:06:26.829 from Berlin to the rest of the world was virtually 00:06:26.829 --> 00:06:29.069 impossible. Right. Germany had to get creative. 00:06:29.449 --> 00:06:31.490 One route was sending the message as a radio 00:06:31.490 --> 00:06:33.569 transmission through a plant in West Saveville, 00:06:33.569 --> 00:06:35.889 New York, which was ironically being monitored 00:06:35.889 --> 00:06:38.410 and operated by the U .S. Navy at the time. Exactly. 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:41.620 Another route involved hiding the message inside 00:06:41.620 --> 00:06:44.600 a Swedish diplomatic pouch that went from Stockholm 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:47.839 to Buenos Aires and then up to Mexico. But those 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:51.079 routes were unreliable. The most incredible route, 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:53.839 the main one they used, relied on the United 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:56.459 States itself. Yes. Because their own cables 00:06:56.459 --> 00:06:59.100 were severed, the German Foreign Office appealed 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:02.870 to the United States State Department. They literally 00:07:02.870 --> 00:07:05.449 asked if they could use the American diplomatic 00:07:05.449 --> 00:07:08.610 telegraphic system to send messages to their 00:07:08.610 --> 00:07:10.730 embassy in Washington. And President Woodrow 00:07:10.730 --> 00:07:13.350 Wilson actually agreed to this. He did. He believed 00:07:13.350 --> 00:07:15.850 that cooperating with Germany and keeping the 00:07:15.850 --> 00:07:18.290 lines of communication open would sustain good 00:07:18.290 --> 00:07:20.949 relations. And help facilitate his ultimate goal, 00:07:21.269 --> 00:07:23.750 which was brokering a negotiated end to the war. 00:07:23.829 --> 00:07:26.069 Right. So the workflow is absurd. The Germans 00:07:26.069 --> 00:07:28.009 would hand their messages to the American embassy 00:07:28.009 --> 00:07:31.269 in Berlin. OK. Those would be relayed to Copenhagen 00:07:31.269 --> 00:07:34.189 and Denmark, forwarded to London, and then sent 00:07:34.189 --> 00:07:37.029 across the transatlantic cable to the US by American 00:07:37.029 --> 00:07:39.990 telegraph operators. And Germany assumed this 00:07:39.990 --> 00:07:42.569 American diplomatic route was completely secure. 00:07:42.810 --> 00:07:45.370 They felt very safe using it. But my understanding 00:07:45.370 --> 00:07:48.110 is that the US had placed a very strict condition 00:07:48.110 --> 00:07:51.279 on this courtesy. All messages sent through the 00:07:51.279 --> 00:07:53.800 American system had to be in clear text. Yes. 00:07:54.019 --> 00:07:56.600 For anyone unfamiliar, clear text just means 00:07:56.600 --> 00:08:00.879 plain unencrypted language. The Americans demanded 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:03.100 to know exactly what the Germans were sending 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:05.579 so they wouldn't be accused of aiding the German 00:08:05.579 --> 00:08:08.259 war effort. Exactly. If Zimmerman had sent his 00:08:08.259 --> 00:08:11.319 plan to carve up Texas in clear text, the American 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:13.420 telegraph operators would have read it immediately 00:08:13.420 --> 00:08:15.740 and massive alarm bills would have gone off. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:19.100 That was the rule. But Wilson, in his desperate 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:21.459 attempt to be accommodating and foster peace 00:08:21.459 --> 00:08:24.939 talks, had recently relaxed those rules. He allowed 00:08:24.939 --> 00:08:27.500 the Germans to send coded messages, assuming 00:08:27.500 --> 00:08:29.779 they were sensitive peace proposals. So they 00:08:29.779 --> 00:08:32.279 took full advantage of that big time. The Germans 00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:34.899 actually persuaded the U .S. ambassador in Berlin, 00:08:35.259 --> 00:08:38.399 James W. Girard, to accept Zimmerman's explosive 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:42.200 note in its fully coded form. So on January 16th, 00:08:42.200 --> 00:08:45.399 1917, the United States State Department essentially 00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:48.220 transmitted the very weapon meant to be used 00:08:48.220 --> 00:08:50.940 to dismantle their own country. The Americans 00:08:50.940 --> 00:08:53.659 literally paid for the telegraph transmission 00:08:53.659 --> 00:08:55.899 of their own planned invasion. Yes, they did. 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:58.580 But this relies on the assumption that no one 00:08:58.580 --> 00:09:01.539 is listening in on the American diplomatic lines. 00:09:01.980 --> 00:09:04.580 And that brings us to the British. Every single 00:09:04.580 --> 00:09:06.919 piece of diplomatic traffic passing through the 00:09:06.919 --> 00:09:09.000 transatlantic cables which landed in Britain 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:12.059 was being quietly monitored by British intelligence. 00:09:12.179 --> 00:09:15.179 Right. Specifically, a highly secretive department 00:09:15.179 --> 00:09:18.429 at the Admiralty known as Room 40. Rune 40 was 00:09:18.429 --> 00:09:20.809 essentially the World War I equivalent of Bletchley 00:09:20.809 --> 00:09:24.309 Park. Exactly. It was filled with brilliant codebreakers, 00:09:24.529 --> 00:09:27.070 linguists, and analysts whose sole job was to 00:09:27.070 --> 00:09:29.629 intercept and decrypt enemy communications. And 00:09:29.629 --> 00:09:31.769 they caught it. They intercepted the Zimmerman 00:09:31.769 --> 00:09:34.799 transmission as it bounced through London. Inside 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:38.000 Room 40, an analyst named Nigel DeGray recognized 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:40.659 the code being used. And he had partially decoded 00:09:40.659 --> 00:09:42.899 the telegram by the very next day. Here's where 00:09:42.899 --> 00:09:45.259 it gets really interesting. How did they get 00:09:45.259 --> 00:09:47.919 the specific insight to crack this top -tier 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:50.559 German diplomatic code? It wasn't just raw mathematics. 00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:54.159 Not at all. It involved a massive stroke of luck 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:56.419 in a completely different theater of the war. 00:09:56.549 --> 00:09:59.169 It's a phenomenal story of global espionage. 00:09:59.429 --> 00:10:01.889 Room 40 was dealing with the German diplomatic 00:10:01.889 --> 00:10:06.549 code 13040. Okay, 13040. Right. To understand 00:10:06.549 --> 00:10:08.970 this, you have to know how codebooks work. They 00:10:08.970 --> 00:10:11.889 are essentially massive translation dictionaries. 00:10:12.190 --> 00:10:14.710 A specific string of numbers corresponds to a 00:10:14.710 --> 00:10:17.190 specific word or phrase. Precisely. Without the 00:10:17.190 --> 00:10:18.870 physical book, the numbers are just gibberish. 00:10:19.289 --> 00:10:21.350 You might decipher a few common words through 00:10:21.350 --> 00:10:24.230 frequency analysis, but a complex diplomatic 00:10:24.230 --> 00:10:26.259 message is nearly impossible to read. quickly 00:10:26.259 --> 00:10:29.080 without the key. And the British had been slowly 00:10:29.080 --> 00:10:32.419 reconstructing code 13040 for years, but they 00:10:32.419 --> 00:10:35.379 had massive gaps. Yes. And the missing pieces 00:10:35.379 --> 00:10:37.379 to that puzzle were found in the Middle East. 00:10:37.740 --> 00:10:40.000 Specifically through a German agent named Wilhelm 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.100 Wasmus, he was involved in the Niedermeier Hentig 00:10:43.100 --> 00:10:45.360 expedition. Which was a failed German mission 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:48.039 in Afghanistan to try and incite local populations 00:10:48.039 --> 00:10:50.879 against British India. Right. The mission fell 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:53.840 apart and Wasmus had to flee for his life. In 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:56.200 his desperate escape, he abandoned his luggage. 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:59.039 Just left it behind. British and allied forces 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:02.019 recovered his baggage and inside they found his 00:11:02.019 --> 00:11:06.080 heavily guarded 13040 codebook. Wow. Finding 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:08.940 Wasmus's abandoned codebook provided the crucial 00:11:08.940 --> 00:11:11.080 missing keys that allowed the British codebreakers 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:14.419 in London to finally piece together the terrifying 00:11:14.419 --> 00:11:17.779 full text of the Zimmerman telegram. So William 00:11:17.779 --> 00:11:20.860 Reginald Hall. The chief of Room 40 now holds 00:11:20.860 --> 00:11:23.080 the fully decrypted telegram in his hands. Yes, 00:11:23.080 --> 00:11:25.759 he does. He is staring at a document that proves 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:28.320 Germany is trying to ally with Mexico and Japan 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:31.700 to carve up the United States. A completely staggering 00:11:31.700 --> 00:11:33.620 piece of intelligence. He knows this piece of 00:11:33.620 --> 00:11:36.039 paper could completely sway American public opinion 00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:39.100 and their neutrality and bring millions of American 00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:41.279 troops into the war to save Britain. But he can't 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:44.070 just hand it to Washington. Right. What's fascinating 00:11:44.070 --> 00:11:46.690 here is the absolute strategic dilemma this created 00:11:46.690 --> 00:11:49.809 for Admiral Hall. It was a monumental intelligence 00:11:49.809 --> 00:11:52.230 tightrope. If he just walks up to the American 00:11:52.230 --> 00:11:54.710 ambassador and says, look what the Germans are 00:11:54.710 --> 00:11:57.110 planning, the Americans are going to immediately 00:11:57.110 --> 00:11:59.990 ask, how did you get this? Because to explain 00:11:59.990 --> 00:12:02.830 how they got it, Paul would have to admit to 00:12:02.830 --> 00:12:06.970 two disastrous things. Exactly. First, the Germans 00:12:06.970 --> 00:12:09.429 would instantly read the news, realize their 00:12:09.429 --> 00:12:12.889 top -secret 13040 code was completely compromised, 00:12:13.250 --> 00:12:15.490 and change all their communication methods overnight, 00:12:15.730 --> 00:12:18.009 blinding British intelligence. Right. And second, 00:12:18.470 --> 00:12:20.509 the United States would realize that their supposed 00:12:20.509 --> 00:12:24.669 ally, Britain, was actively tapping and eavesdropping 00:12:24.669 --> 00:12:27.690 on private American diplomatic cables. Paul could 00:12:27.690 --> 00:12:29.850 have won the battle but lost the entire intelligence 00:12:29.850 --> 00:12:32.730 war. So he actually waited. For three agonizing 00:12:32.730 --> 00:12:34.690 weeks while British ships were being sunk by 00:12:34.690 --> 00:12:36.909 U -boats, Hall sat on the telegram. That must 00:12:36.909 --> 00:12:39.509 have been excruciating. During this time, Nigel 00:12:39.509 --> 00:12:41.509 de Grey and another brilliant cryptographer, 00:12:41.649 --> 00:12:44.610 William Montgomery, completely finished decrypting 00:12:44.610 --> 00:12:47.570 and refining the translation. And then? Finally, 00:12:47.830 --> 00:12:49.470 Hall passed it to the British Foreign Office 00:12:49.470 --> 00:12:52.190 on February 5th, but strictly warned them not 00:12:52.190 --> 00:12:54.659 to release it yet. They needed to engineer a 00:12:54.659 --> 00:12:57.259 watertight cover story. They had to explain to 00:12:57.259 --> 00:12:59.879 the Americans how they got the coded text and 00:12:59.879 --> 00:13:02.580 how they got the plain English translation. Without 00:13:02.580 --> 00:13:05.840 ever exposing Room 40's existence or the fact 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:08.399 that they were spying on U .S. cables. And the 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:10.539 cover story they came up with is a master class 00:13:10.539 --> 00:13:14.330 in espionage. It really is. The British reasoned 00:13:14.330 --> 00:13:16.529 that because the message was relayed from Washington 00:13:16.529 --> 00:13:19.370 down to the German embassy in Mexico City, the 00:13:19.370 --> 00:13:22.269 commercial telegraph office in Mexico City would 00:13:22.269 --> 00:13:25.129 legally have a copy of the coded text on file. 00:13:25.549 --> 00:13:27.169 Right, a physical record of the transaction. 00:13:27.330 --> 00:13:30.210 So they deploy a British agent in Mexico. He's 00:13:30.210 --> 00:13:33.659 known in the files only as Mr. H. Though Sir 00:13:33.659 --> 00:13:35.980 Thomas Haller, the British ambassador in Mexico, 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:38.580 later claimed in his autobiography that he was 00:13:38.580 --> 00:13:40.960 the operative, Mr. H walks into the commercial 00:13:40.960 --> 00:13:43.720 telegraph company in Mexico City, slips an employee 00:13:43.720 --> 00:13:46.200 a hefty bribe, and walks out with a physical 00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:49.259 copy of the coded telegram. That specific action 00:13:49.259 --> 00:13:51.659 was the masterstroke that saved the entire operation. 00:13:51.879 --> 00:13:54.600 It provided a brilliant half -truth. A half -truth? 00:13:54.919 --> 00:13:57.730 Yes. When the British finally presented the evidence 00:13:57.730 --> 00:14:00.090 to the Americans, they could truthfully look 00:14:00.090 --> 00:14:02.870 them in the eye and say we bought a copy of this 00:14:02.870 --> 00:14:05.470 telegram in Mexico. This perfectly obscured the 00:14:05.470 --> 00:14:07.490 fact that they had originally intercepted it 00:14:07.490 --> 00:14:11.039 by tapping American lines in London. Furthermore, 00:14:11.259 --> 00:14:14.000 when the German embassy in Washington retransmitted 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:16.620 the message down to Mexico City, they didn't 00:14:16.620 --> 00:14:20.039 use the newest codes. They encoded it using the 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:23.360 older 1 -3 -Z -40 code because the embassy in 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:25.679 Mexico didn't have the newest code books yet. 00:14:25.860 --> 00:14:27.899 Which is the exact code book the British had 00:14:27.899 --> 00:14:30.019 just perfected thanks to the luggage left in 00:14:30.019 --> 00:14:32.639 Afghanistan. Exactly. So the British hand, the 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:35.860 Americans, the coded text from Mexico, the English 00:14:35.860 --> 00:14:38.259 translation, and the third 3 -D -40 code book. 00:14:38.509 --> 00:14:40.870 They tell the Americans, don't take our word 00:14:40.870 --> 00:14:43.470 for it, verify it yourself. And the Americans 00:14:43.470 --> 00:14:45.389 do. They go to their own commercial telegraph 00:14:45.389 --> 00:14:48.129 records, pull the exact same coded message they 00:14:48.129 --> 00:14:50.389 had transmitted for the Germans weeks prior, 00:14:51.149 --> 00:14:53.029 apply the British code book, and read the threat 00:14:53.029 --> 00:14:55.350 with their own eyes. It was undeniable proof. 00:14:55.649 --> 00:14:57.990 And meanwhile, how did Germany react when they 00:14:57.990 --> 00:15:00.539 found out Britain had the message? Because Britain 00:15:00.539 --> 00:15:03.639 publicly claimed they stole a physical hard copy 00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:06.960 in Mexico, the German Foreign Office completely 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:09.379 refused to believe their cryptographic codes 00:15:09.379 --> 00:15:11.759 were compromised. They trusted their math too 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:14.580 much. Way too much. Instead, they idiotically 00:15:14.580 --> 00:15:17.379 launched a massive paranoid witch hunt inside 00:15:17.379 --> 00:15:20.580 their own embassy in Mexico City. Accusing their 00:15:20.580 --> 00:15:23.570 own loyal staff of treason. and leaking the document. 00:15:23.970 --> 00:15:26.029 Yes, they never changed their codes, allowing 00:15:26.029 --> 00:15:28.330 Room 40 to keep reading their mail for the rest 00:15:28.330 --> 00:15:30.929 of the war. It's an astonishing self -own by 00:15:30.929 --> 00:15:33.250 the German high command. Yeah. But while the 00:15:33.250 --> 00:15:35.210 Germans are chasing ghosts in their embassy, 00:15:35.750 --> 00:15:37.629 we have to look at what was actually happening 00:15:37.629 --> 00:15:39.669 with the Mexican government. That's a crucial 00:15:39.669 --> 00:15:42.389 part of the story. When Ambassador Eckhart finally 00:15:42.389 --> 00:15:44.669 presented this audacious proposal to Mexico, 00:15:45.450 --> 00:15:48.450 did they ever seriously consider it? The answer 00:15:48.450 --> 00:15:51.090 is yes. They took it seriously enough to evaluate 00:15:51.090 --> 00:15:53.559 it. When Mexican President Venustiano Carranza 00:15:53.559 --> 00:15:56.820 didn't just dismiss it out of hand, he assigned 00:15:56.820 --> 00:15:59.279 a formal military commission made up of his top 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:02.860 generals to assess the actual feasibility of 00:16:02.860 --> 00:16:05.220 forming an alliance with the German Empire and 00:16:05.220 --> 00:16:07.820 launching a military campaign to take over Texas, 00:16:08.039 --> 00:16:11.120 New Mexico, and Arizona. Which sounds terrifying 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:13.860 on paper, but when the Mexican generals actually 00:16:13.860 --> 00:16:17.700 sit down and apply some cold, hard critical thinking 00:16:17.700 --> 00:16:21.919 to this grand German plan, it falls apart instantly. 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:25.139 Precisely. The military commission laid out several 00:16:25.139 --> 00:16:27.820 highly logical, deeply practical reasons for 00:16:27.820 --> 00:16:29.960 rejecting the alliance. What was the first reason? 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:32.159 First, you have to look at Mexico's domestic 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:34.820 situation. They were in the middle of a brutal, 00:16:35.159 --> 00:16:37.840 protracted civil war. Figures like Pancho Villa 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:40.860 and Emiliano Zapata were still actively leading 00:16:40.860 --> 00:16:43.159 armed factions. So they weren't unified? Not 00:16:43.159 --> 00:16:45.539 at all. President Carranza's own position was 00:16:45.539 --> 00:16:47.840 incredibly insecure. He was barely holding the 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:49.779 country together and, in fact, was eventually 00:16:49.779 --> 00:16:53.200 assassinated in 1920. Wow. Picking a massive 00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:55.039 fight with the United States would have instantly 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:57.539 prompted Washington to heavily arm and support 00:16:57.539 --> 00:17:00.120 one of Carranza's domestic rivals, guaranteeing 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:02.340 his downfall. Then there was the reality of the 00:17:02.340 --> 00:17:05.680 military hardware. Exactly. The disparity in 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:08.660 military strength was vast. Even if Mexico had 00:17:08.660 --> 00:17:11.259 been perfectly united, there is no scenario where 00:17:11.259 --> 00:17:13.279 they could successfully invade and hold U .S. 00:17:13.299 --> 00:17:16.039 territory. Right. Much of Mexico's military hardware 00:17:16.039 --> 00:17:19.319 in 1917 was outdated. Some of it was only a slight 00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:21.440 upgrade from the muskets and cannons they used 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:23.640 in the Mexican -American War 70 years prior. 00:17:23.799 --> 00:17:27.259 They simply did not have the industrial capacity 00:17:27.259 --> 00:17:29.640 to fight a modern war against the U .S. military. 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:33.750 No. But wait, didn't Germany promise generous 00:17:33.750 --> 00:17:37.009 financial support? Couldn't Mexico just buy better 00:17:37.009 --> 00:17:39.750 weapons? The generals realized that German promise 00:17:39.750 --> 00:17:42.269 was entirely empty. The German government had 00:17:42.269 --> 00:17:45.029 already told Carranza back in June 1916 that 00:17:45.029 --> 00:17:46.990 they couldn't even provide enough gold to help 00:17:46.990 --> 00:17:50.089 Mexico stock an independent national bank. The 00:17:50.089 --> 00:17:52.190 British naval blockade was starving Germany. 00:17:52.549 --> 00:17:55.049 There was no way German ships could deliver mountains 00:17:55.049 --> 00:17:57.589 of gold or weapons to Mexican ports. The generals 00:17:57.589 --> 00:17:59.869 knew Germany was writing checks it couldn't cash. 00:17:59.970 --> 00:18:02.329 Exactly. And even if Mexico somehow found the 00:18:02.329 --> 00:18:03.970 money, they would have had to buy those modern 00:18:03.970 --> 00:18:06.849 weapons from the ABC nations. The ABC nations 00:18:06.849 --> 00:18:10.440 being Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Right. And 00:18:10.440 --> 00:18:13.240 this brings up a crucial diplomatic angle. The 00:18:13.240 --> 00:18:15.759 ABC nations had actually stepped in to organize 00:18:15.759 --> 00:18:20.140 the Niagara Falls Peace Conference in 1914. They 00:18:20.140 --> 00:18:22.660 did this specifically to prevent a full -scale 00:18:22.660 --> 00:18:25.779 war between the US and Mexico after the US military 00:18:25.779 --> 00:18:29.019 occupied the port of Veracruz. So if Mexico suddenly 00:18:29.019 --> 00:18:31.950 turned around and launched an unprovoked German 00:18:31.950 --> 00:18:34.150 -funded invasion of the U .S. It would completely 00:18:34.150 --> 00:18:37.289 betray the ABC nations and ruin relations with 00:18:37.289 --> 00:18:39.670 the most powerful countries in South America. 00:18:40.390 --> 00:18:42.829 And finally, the generals pointed out the sheer 00:18:42.829 --> 00:18:45.710 terrifying logistical impossibility of what Germany 00:18:45.710 --> 00:18:47.990 was asking. They were supposed to occupy Texas, 00:18:48.309 --> 00:18:50.660 New Mexico and Arizona. That meant trying to 00:18:50.660 --> 00:18:53.420 pacify millions of heavily armed English speaking 00:18:53.420 --> 00:18:55.799 Americans who were fiercely independent and used 00:18:55.799 --> 00:18:57.539 to self -government. It was a complete fantasy. 00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:00.779 So Mexico gives a very firm, quiet no. And the 00:19:00.779 --> 00:19:02.880 direct result of this logical assessment is that 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:05.119 the U .S. rewards Mexico's neutrality. Right. 00:19:05.420 --> 00:19:08.759 On August 31st, 1917, the U .S. officially recognized 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:11.359 the Carranza government as the legitimate permanent 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:13.640 rulers of the country, what diplomats called 00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:16.700 de jure recognition. They did this specifically 00:19:16.700 --> 00:19:19.380 to stabilize Carranza and ensure that Mexico 00:19:19.380 --> 00:19:22.380 remains strictly out of World War One. Yes. But 00:19:22.380 --> 00:19:24.920 let's rewind a few months to the moment the American 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:28.119 public actually finds out about this plot. President 00:19:28.119 --> 00:19:31.359 Wilson receives the authenticated telegram from 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:34.920 the British in late February. He does. The source 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:38.000 notes he feels much indignation, which is a very 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.180 polite diplomatic way of saying he was furious. 00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:43.240 He releases it to the Associated Press on March 00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:46.920 1st, 1917. And the public reaction is explosive. 00:19:47.160 --> 00:19:49.279 But it's not universally supportive of war right 00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:51.920 away. No. It's important to understand how complex 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:54.619 and divided American public opinion was at that 00:19:54.619 --> 00:19:57.859 exact moment. Right. On one hand, many Americans 00:19:57.859 --> 00:20:00.819 already held strong anti -Mexican and anti -German 00:20:00.819 --> 00:20:03.160 views. And tensions on the southern border were 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:05.720 at a boiling point because of the raids by Pancho 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:08.680 Villa. But on the other hand, there were massive. 00:20:08.940 --> 00:20:11.920 deeply entrenched anti -war sentiments across 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:14.619 the country. President Wilson had literally just 00:20:14.619 --> 00:20:16.799 won re -election a few months prior on the slogan, 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:20.180 He Kept Us Out of War. Right. And you have heavily 00:20:20.180 --> 00:20:23.339 influential media outlets, most notably the Hearst 00:20:23.339 --> 00:20:26.380 Press Empire, and various groups of German Americans 00:20:26.380 --> 00:20:29.059 and Irish Americans who were deeply skeptical 00:20:29.059 --> 00:20:31.789 of British intentions. Very skeptical. When they 00:20:31.789 --> 00:20:34.670 read this telegram in the newspapers, they looked 00:20:34.670 --> 00:20:37.069 at the convenient cover story that the document 00:20:37.069 --> 00:20:39.769 was just found in Mexico and they assumed it 00:20:39.769 --> 00:20:42.809 was fake. They loudly argued that the entire 00:20:42.809 --> 00:20:45.829 telegram was an elaborate forgery. A piece of 00:20:45.829 --> 00:20:48.569 black propaganda created by British intelligence 00:20:48.569 --> 00:20:51.609 to trick the United States into shedding American 00:20:51.609 --> 00:20:55.059 blood to save the British Empire. And the Wilson 00:20:55.059 --> 00:20:57.519 administration is stuck in a terrible position. 00:20:57.799 --> 00:20:59.720 They have the confidential proof from the British, 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:02.039 the code books, and the commercial telegraph 00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:04.039 receipts. But they can't make that hard evidence 00:21:04.039 --> 00:21:06.819 public without completely blowing Room 40's cover 00:21:06.819 --> 00:21:09.140 and ruining British intelligence. The Fortree 00:21:09.140 --> 00:21:11.720 theories are gaining serious traction. The anti 00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:14.720 -war movement is seizing on this doubt. The U 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:16.920 .S. government needs a miracle to prove the document 00:21:16.920 --> 00:21:19.240 is real without revealing their sources. And 00:21:19.240 --> 00:21:21.539 they get that miracle from the most baffling, 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:24.019 unlikely source imaginable. Arthur Zimmerman 00:21:24.019 --> 00:21:27.539 himself. Yes. It is truly one of the most catastrophic 00:21:27.539 --> 00:21:31.039 public relations blunders in all of diplomatic 00:21:31.039 --> 00:21:33.339 history. It's hard to believe it actually happened. 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:37.140 On March 3, just two days after the telegram 00:21:37.140 --> 00:21:39.680 hits the front pages, while the forgery theories 00:21:39.680 --> 00:21:42.460 are working perfectly in Germany's favor, Zimmerman 00:21:42.460 --> 00:21:45.049 holds a press conference in Berlin. An American 00:21:45.049 --> 00:21:48.210 journalist asks him point blank about the telegram. 00:21:48.549 --> 00:21:50.630 And instead of denying it, instead of calling 00:21:50.630 --> 00:21:54.289 it a British lie, Zimmerman simply says, I cannot 00:21:54.289 --> 00:21:57.569 deny it. It is true. It's astonishing. He didn't 00:21:57.569 --> 00:22:00.390 just slip up once either. On March 29th, he gave 00:22:00.390 --> 00:22:02.509 a formal speech in the Reichstag, the German 00:22:02.509 --> 00:22:05.009 parliament, and again fully admitted the telegram 00:22:05.009 --> 00:22:07.859 was genuine. Why did he do this? He was facing 00:22:07.859 --> 00:22:10.640 intense criticism from political rivals inside 00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:12.579 Germany who thought he wasn't doing enough to 00:22:12.579 --> 00:22:15.460 prepare for America entering the war. So he admitted 00:22:15.460 --> 00:22:17.779 to the telegram to prove to his domestic critics 00:22:17.779 --> 00:22:20.079 that he was actively trying to build alliances. 00:22:20.460 --> 00:22:22.599 Exactly. He tried to justify it by saying it 00:22:22.599 --> 00:22:25.220 was only a contingency plan, but the geopolitical 00:22:25.220 --> 00:22:27.720 damage was entirely done. By defending his own 00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:30.900 ego, he personally squashed the American forgery 00:22:30.900 --> 00:22:33.700 theories and handed the allies a blank check. 00:22:33.819 --> 00:22:36.759 He really did. So what does this all mean? You 00:22:36.759 --> 00:22:39.960 have this terrifying telegram, publicly authenticated 00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:42.380 by the man who wrote it, proposing to carve up 00:22:42.380 --> 00:22:44.740 the American Southwest. And at the exact same 00:22:44.740 --> 00:22:48.579 time February 1st has passed, Germany's unrestricted 00:22:48.579 --> 00:22:51.660 submarine warfare has officially begun. The abstract 00:22:51.660 --> 00:22:54.019 threat has become a bloody reality. Exactly. 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:56.960 German U -boats are now actively torpedoing and 00:22:56.960 --> 00:22:59.119 sinking American merchant ships in the Atlantic. 00:22:59.980 --> 00:23:02.500 American sailors are drowning. President Wilson 00:23:02.500 --> 00:23:04.900 had previously tried to arm merchant ships for 00:23:04.900 --> 00:23:08.380 self -defense, but anti -war senators had filibustered 00:23:08.380 --> 00:23:10.579 and blocked the measure. Now the context has 00:23:10.579 --> 00:23:12.980 violently shifted. You have the immediate physical 00:23:12.980 --> 00:23:15.559 threat to American lives on the high seas combined 00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:18.259 with the existential geopolitical threat outlined 00:23:18.259 --> 00:23:21.079 in the Zimmerman telegram. Neutrality is no longer 00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:23.019 a defensible position in the eyes of the public 00:23:23.019 --> 00:23:25.319 or the government. The demands for action become 00:23:25.319 --> 00:23:28.619 completely overwhelming. And on April 6, 1917, 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:30.799 the United States Congress officially votes to 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:33.009 declare their war on the German Empire. With 00:23:33.009 --> 00:23:35.450 President Wilson calling for a war to make the 00:23:35.450 --> 00:23:39.230 world safe for democracy. The telegram, combined 00:23:39.230 --> 00:23:42.029 with the submarines, was the tipping point. And 00:23:42.029 --> 00:23:44.710 as a brief, almost comical postscript to the 00:23:44.710 --> 00:23:47.430 Grand Alliance proposal, the Japanese government, 00:23:47.529 --> 00:23:49.589 who were already fighting on the allied side 00:23:49.589 --> 00:23:51.990 and honoring their treaties with Britain, eventually 00:23:51.990 --> 00:23:54.569 released a public statement confirming they had 00:23:54.569 --> 00:23:57.490 absolutely zero interest in Germany's absurd 00:23:57.490 --> 00:24:00.359 offer to switch sides and attack America. The 00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:03.380 Zimmermann Telegram completely backfired on every 00:24:03.380 --> 00:24:05.660 single conceivable level. It failed to secure 00:24:05.660 --> 00:24:08.220 an alliance. It failed to distract the U .S. 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:11.240 Army. It exposed their supposedly unbreakable 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:13.519 codes. And it directly accelerated the entry 00:24:13.519 --> 00:24:16.059 of the United States into the war, which ultimately 00:24:16.059 --> 00:24:18.480 sealed Germany's defeat. It's an astonishing 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:20.799 sequence of historical dominoes. And there's 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:24.400 a final amazing detail to wrap this up. For decades, 00:24:24.819 --> 00:24:26.839 historians assumed that the original typed decryption 00:24:26.839 --> 00:24:29.440 of the telegram, the actual physical piece of 00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:31.799 paper that Admiral Hall handed to the American 00:24:31.799 --> 00:24:34.819 ambassador in London, was lost forever. Likely 00:24:34.819 --> 00:24:37.220 tossed in an incinerator along with thousands 00:24:37.220 --> 00:24:40.119 of other secret documents from the era. But... 00:24:39.900 --> 00:24:43.640 In October 2005, an anonymous historian researching 00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:45.819 the UK's government communications headquarters 00:24:45.819 --> 00:24:48.160 finally found it. They discovered the original 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:50.559 typescript handed to U .S. Ambassador Walter 00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:52.980 Hines Page. And right at the top of the document 00:24:52.980 --> 00:24:55.579 scribbled in Admiral William Reginald Hall's 00:24:55.579 --> 00:24:59.019 own handwriting are the words, This is the one 00:24:59.019 --> 00:25:02.220 handed to Dr. Page and exposed by the president. 00:25:02.420 --> 00:25:05.140 It is a remarkable artifact to survive a century 00:25:05.140 --> 00:25:07.180 of history, and it connects this entire narrative 00:25:07.180 --> 00:25:09.650 directly back to you listening right now. How 00:25:09.650 --> 00:25:12.609 so? Well, the Zimmerman Telegram is so much more 00:25:12.609 --> 00:25:14.910 than a date you memorize for a history test. 00:25:15.250 --> 00:25:18.349 It is a profound real world case study in the 00:25:18.349 --> 00:25:20.450 critical importance of information security. 00:25:20.950 --> 00:25:23.190 Absolutely. The German High Command arrogantly 00:25:23.190 --> 00:25:25.349 assumed their communications were safe. They 00:25:25.349 --> 00:25:28.009 actually used American diplomatic cables to transmit 00:25:28.009 --> 00:25:30.529 a plan to attack America, which is perhaps the 00:25:30.529 --> 00:25:33.410 most spectacular example of unintended consequences 00:25:33.410 --> 00:25:36.910 in modern warfare. Furthermore, this entire saga 00:25:36.910 --> 00:25:40.279 highlights the immense life -saving value of 00:25:40.279 --> 00:25:43.299 critical thinking. We see this perfectly demonstrated 00:25:43.299 --> 00:25:45.660 by the Mexican Military Commission, who looked 00:25:45.660 --> 00:25:48.940 past the grand promises of reclaimed glory and 00:25:48.940 --> 00:25:52.619 objectively analyzed the cold, hard, logistical 00:25:52.619 --> 00:25:55.220 realities of the proposal. It really is the ultimate 00:25:55.220 --> 00:25:57.960 cautionary tale of acting on arrogant assumptions. 00:25:58.579 --> 00:26:02.519 The Germans assumed their 3040 code was mathematically 00:26:02.519 --> 00:26:05.539 unbreakable. They assumed Mexico would be blinded 00:26:05.539 --> 00:26:08.559 by the temptation of reclaiming Texas. And they 00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:10.619 assumed the United States wouldn't find out about 00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:13.099 plot until it was too late. And every single 00:26:13.099 --> 00:26:15.299 one of those assumptions was dead wrong. Dead 00:26:15.299 --> 00:26:17.839 wrong. This raises an important question though 00:26:17.839 --> 00:26:19.940 about what we still might not know regarding 00:26:19.940 --> 00:26:22.519 this event. Right. History is rarely a perfectly 00:26:22.519 --> 00:26:25.240 closed book even a hundred years later. Exactly. 00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:28.279 As recently as 2024 it was reported that there 00:26:28.279 --> 00:26:31.839 are still six open files regarding the Zimmerman 00:26:31.839 --> 00:26:34.240 telegram held securely by the National Archives 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:36.700 at Q in the United Kingdom that have not yet 00:26:36.700 --> 00:26:39.339 been declassified. That's fascinating. Well over 00:26:39.339 --> 00:26:42.680 a century has passed since this single 160 word 00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:45.059 message fundamentally changed the trajectory 00:26:45.059 --> 00:26:47.900 of the modern world. Yet as we examine the available 00:26:47.900 --> 00:26:50.259 evidence we are left to ponder. What secrets 00:26:50.259 --> 00:26:52.500 about the century -old telegram, about the spies 00:26:52.500 --> 00:26:54.799 who intercepted it, or the methods they used 00:26:54.799 --> 00:26:57.180 are still deemed too dangerous, too sensitive, 00:26:57.240 --> 00:26:59.380 or too revealing to share with the world today?