WWI/The Great War

[tbob]

Originally Posted by howard38

American sentiment was already unalterably turning against Germany before the Zimmerman telegram was made public. The telegram (assuming it was authentic) was was sent only after Germany repudiated the Sussex Pledge and resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in January 1917 thus ensuring America's entry into the war.

I disagree. Sentiment may have been turning but even before the release of the telegram, there was still a very strong isolationistic feeling in the United States.
On February 24 Britain released the Zimmerman telegram to Wilson, and news of the telegram was published widely in the American press on March 1. The telegram had such an impact on American opinion that, according to David Kahn, author of The Codebreakers, "No other single cryptanalysis has had such enormous consequences." It is his opinion that "never before or since has so much turned upon the solution of a secret message." On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress formally declared war on Germany and its allies. The Zimmerman telegram clearly had helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history.