The Zimmermann Telegram by Barbara Tuchman

Author:Barbara Tuchman [Tuchman, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241968277
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2014-06-04T22:00:00+00:00

Nine

The Telegram Is Sent

ON JANUARY 9, 1917, at the castle of Pless on the edge of Poland, where Supreme Headquarters was maintained in three hundred rooms served by liveried footmen, a momentous meeting was called—not to reach a decision but to seal one already made. A month earlier the Supreme High Command had reached their own decision to use the U-boat even if it brought America in against them. They calculated on the U-boat’s bringing victory within six months and on the impossibility of America’s recruiting, organizing, training, and transporting an army within that time. Secretary of the Navy Admiral Edvard von Capelle had flatly stated their article of faith: “From the military point of view, the assistance which will result from the entrance of the United States into the war will amount to nothing.” That the moral effect of America’s entrance would encourage the Allies to hold out long enough to upset the German time table was a possibility which everyone was conscious of but no one mentioned.

Field Marshal von Hindenburg, despite a vague uneasiness stirring the heavy processes of his mind, had allowed himself to be persuaded by his demonic colleague, General Ludendorff. Together they persuaded the Kaiser, who, whatever his own doubts, had not the courage to appear less resolute than his commanders. All that remained was to bring round the Imperial Chancellor, who was at that moment on his way to Pless. Lugubriously the general, the field marshal, and Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff, Chief of Naval General Staff, waited for him and discussed the prospects while a staff colonel sat recording in a corner.

Holtzendorff: The Chancellor arrives here tomorrow.

Hindenburg: What’s troubling him now?

Holtzendorff: He wants to control the diplomatic presentation of the announcement in order to keep the United States out of it. … The Foreign Office is worried about what South America will do and our relations with them when the war is over.

Hindenburg: We must conquer first. …

Holtzendorff: Later today I will read my memorandum to His Majesty, who even this morning had no real understanding of the situation.

Hindenburg: That is true.

Holtzendorff: What shall we do if the Chancellor does not join us?

Hindenburg: That is just what is bothering me.

Holtzendorff: Then you must become Chancellor.

Hindenburg: No, no. I cannot do that. I won’t do it. I cannot talk in the Reichstag. I refuse.

Ludendorff: I would not try to persuade the Field Marshal …

Hindenburg: Well, we shall hold together anyway. We have to. We are counting on the probability of war with the United States and we have made all preparations to meet it. Things cannot be worse than they are now. The war must be brought to an end by whatever means as soon as possible.

Holtzendorff: His Majesty doesn’t understand the situation.

Ludendorff: Absolutely not.

Holtzendorff: People and Army are crying for the unrestricted U-boat war.

Ludendorff: Quite so.

Holtzendorff: Secretary of State Helfferich said to me, “Your plan will lead to ruin.” I said to him, “You are letting us drift into ruin.”

Hindenburg: That is true.

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