In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal or alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. The decoded message that Germany sent to Mexico reads: After deciphering the message, the British Government passed its contents on to the American Government. The British ambassador expressed that the British Government would like the method in which the telegram was intercepted to be kept secret, but it has no restriction on making the telegram public.

British intelligence intercepted the telegram and deciphered it. German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann sent an encoded message to the President of Mexico, in which plans to begin unrestricted submarine warfare were revealed and an alliance with Mexico was proposed, on January 16, 1917. The Zimmermann Telegram would be the catalyst to change everything. Ambassador Walter Page sent this telegram to President Woodrow Wilson conveying a translation of the Zimmermann Telegram. In January 1917, the United States was neutral in the European war that would eventually be called World War I.

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