Comments by "" (@VersusARCH) on "Room 40 - Signals Decryption and Intelligence Analysis in Bowler Hats" video.

  1. No country ever went to war due to "public opinion", USA included. It has always been a high level political descision based on strategic interests. Once the descision has already been made, the subordinate media would gear up and shape the public opinion to support the war in order to make the prosecution of the war less costly (for example in the price of cannon fodder). USA entered WW1 when Russia began faltering (after the February Revolution) and a threat of a Central Power's victory became real. Of the two warring sides the Entente borrowed vastly more from the US - courtesy of the Entente navies' blockade that wasn't letting anything through to the Central Powers, the cargo being immediately purchased by the Entente thereby adding to their debts, and US otherwise also had far more business ties with the Entente Powers, particularly UK than with the Central Powers. Hence a Central powers' victory would both create massive problems for the Entente to pay its debt to the US and damage US economy. The Entente victory had an added benefit of damaging the competing, rather than cooperating, German economy. The Zimmermann Telegram and its acknowledgement, rather than being a major German blunder, was obviously a desperate attempt by Germany, which was aware that the Americans are about to join the war on the opposing side, to try to scare them away from it and reassure Mexico that they meant what they promised in the telegram. It just didn't work, but had it never been sent nothing would have been different, other than the declared pretext for the US entry to WW1 on the Entente side.
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