The Invasion of Arizona
1917: The Zimmerman Note
March 1, 1917 began just like any other day in Southern Arizona. The sun came up. The day shift headed for the mines while the weary night shift trudged home. Whistles blew and elevators clanked. A few cars with brass grilles chugged their way up Tombstone Canyon. The milkman left his wagon to trudge up endless stairways. As their morning coffee was brewing, people in nightshirts and robes ventured out to retrieve the daily paper. They would be in for a shock as they unfolded the news.
The headline of the Bisbee Daily Review screamed:
GERMAN PLOT TO JOIN WITH JAPAN AND MEXICO IN WAGING WAR AGAINST THE UNITED STATES IS EXPOSED
…. MEXICO TO GET ARIZONA
Arizona was about to be invaded, conquered and annexed by Mexico! Numbed citizens poured over the article. A coded German telegram had been intercepted by the British. Germany was resuming unrestricted submarine warfare against neutral American shipping. If this should lead to war, the German Ambassador to Mexico was instructed to seek an alliance with the Carranza Government. Mexico would enter the war on Germany’s side. Germany would provide arms and money. Mexico would be rewarded with the restoration of the lost territories of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. On the outbreak of hostilities with the U.S. Mexico was to seek an alliance with Japan.
Until now Bisbeeites had come to view war as a spectator sport. The Mexican Revolution had been raging ten miles to the South since 1910. On March 12, 1913, the rebel Constitutionalists had defeated the Mexican Federal garrison at nearby Naco, capturing the town. In 1914-15, Pancho Villa’s forces conducted a long-running siege of General Obregon’s base at Naco. Bisbee folks packed their lunch baskets and headed down to watch the war. When the fire of the hostile parties strayed across the border, Sheriff Wheeler was quick to mount his horse and ride between the lines to redirect it.
The present threat was far more serious than that of the ongoing Mexican Revolution. The Germans would “Sick Brown Races on America.” The tiny American troop presence in Naco would be no match for the onrushing hordes of Mexican Soldados armed with German Mausers and guided by German officers. At thirty miles away, Fort Huachuca didn’t seem to offer much protection either. Bisbee’s men checked their weapons and headed for the general store to get more ammo.
It all added up. Mexico’s President, Carranza, had been suggesting an embargo of oil and food to the British. Mexico’s Ambassador to Germany was openly “anti-American.” A high official from the German Embassy had been mysteriously transferred to Mexico City. Two German military attaches who had been expelled from the U.S. had visited Mexico. American Naval officers were speculating that Germany had a secret U-Boat base in Mexico. How else could they be threatening the South Atlantic? Mexico haughtily suggested “that it was the business of the allies to keep German submarines out of western waters.” Mexico had also closed French and British banks and cancelled the notes they held. Carranza’s army was equipped with German machine guns and German gunners. A suspected German agent had been arrested in Nogales for trying to gain military information.
If things weren’t bad enough already, readers learned on page 4 that a German raider vessel had been spotted off San Diego. That, on top of the report of “Three Japanese Warships also Seen Recently Nearby.” (It didn’t seem to matter that Germany and Japan were already at war with each other.) Topping that off, there were clandestine wireless signals that appeared to be German coming from the Mexican coast. German agents hired by the recently convicted German Counsel from San Francisco were operating in Mazatlan, Manzanillo and even San Diego.
Though most of the scary reports were not true, the citizens of Southern Arizona were alarmed. Few bothered to question why Japan would suddenly switch sides or how Mexico, still in the throes of revolution, could make war on the U.S. What was true was that the German Foreign Minister thought it might be a good idea to ask Mexico to join their side should America declare war. This scared Arizonans far more than the prospect of the renewal of unrestricted submarine warfare. The latter had always been seen as a problem for East Coast shippers. It wasn’t something that Arizonans were willing to go to war over.
The Zimmerman Note was never broached by the German Ambassador with the Mexican government. Mexico found out about it at the same time the American public did. It took a few weeks, but the Carranza government soundly rejected the idea. Germany’s duplicity weas confirmed when Foreign Minister Zimmerman admitted to sending the telegram. The British concocted a cover story that claimed they had “bought” the contents of the Zimmerman Note from sources who had presumably stolen it from the German legation in the Mexican capitol. The Brits continued to break German codes with impunity for the rest of the war.
Though America’s Southern border was relatively safe, American ships soon began falling victim to German submarines. On April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress for a Declaration of War against Germany. On April 6, he got it.
REFERENCES:
Bisbee Daily Review. (Bisbee, AZ) Mar 1, 1917.
THE ZIMMERMANN TELEGRAM OF JANUARY 16, 1917. William F. Friedman and Charles J. Mendelsohn. War Department, Office of the Chief Signal Officer. (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.) 1938. (Declassified 11-1-2013.)
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