Secret WWI telegram holds lessons for today, historians say

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: the keyboard of geoff goodfellow <geoff () iconia com>
> Date: January 15, 2017 at 2:16:24 PM EST
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Secret WWI telegram holds lessons for today, historians say
>
> Secret WWI telegram holds lessons for today, historians say
>
> CBC   The Canadian Press January 15, 2017
>
>
>
>
> NEWPORT, R.I. — In a secret telegram a century ago, Germany tried to get Mexico to join its side during World War I 
> by offering it territory in the United States. Britain intercepted, deciphered and shared the "Zimmermann Telegram."
>
> Historians, seeing parallels to today, say there's a lot to be learned.
>
> They gathered at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, last week and discussed how a foreign 
> government hacked a secret communication and used the information to sway American public opinion and policy. When it 
> was released, there was a heated debate over whether it was real or what we now call "fake news."
>
> The message's publication — and Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare — was the culmination of a 
> series of events that drew the United States into the war.
>
> Fast-forward a century. Today, the U.S. intelligence community says Russia hacked Democratic groups during the 
> presidential campaign to help Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. President-elect Trump says the 
> DNC was "totally open to be hacked" and praises his future chief of staff for ordering "hacking defence " at the 
> Republican National Committee.
>
> "The greatest strategic threat the U.S. faces is the general ignorance of the past and how the past is with us every 
> day," said David Kohnen, interim executive director at the U.S. Naval War College Museum.
>
> German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann sent the telegram in January 1917 to the German representative in Mexico. 
> Germany would resume sinking vessels without warning and Mexico could ally itself to reconquer Texas, New Mexico and 
> Arizona, he wrote.
>
> Germany wanted to keep the United States busy fighting Mexico so it couldn't send troops and supplies overseas.
>
> The British waited to share the information to avoid compromising their intelligence-gathering methods. But once the 
> "German plot" appeared in headlines, President Woodrow Wilson had few options, said Kohnen, the conference organizer. 
> The United States declared war April 6, 1917.
>
> Retired Rear Adm. Samuel Cox, current director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, said he sees parallels with 
> Russia's recent actions, but stressed that England wasn't trying to diminish U.S. influence in the world by 
> discrediting its values and democracy.
>
> Cox focused on how many people refused to accept the telegram's authenticity because it didn't fit with their 
> preconceived notion of reality, which he said is a reminder of the importance of driving misinformation and rumour 
> out of political debate.
>
> "If you have an environment where the truth becomes optional, like we're kind of facing today, once you're in that 
> environment it becomes difficult to break out of it," he said. "People refuse to believe the truth because they can't 
> tell the difference."
>
> Other historians pondered the consequences of the Germans' overconfidence in their abilities to encode messages. 
> Cryptographers get too arrogant— they think no one will get into "my system," said David Hatch, a National Security 
> Agency historian.
>
> "It was true in 1917 and it's certainly true today," he said at the conference.
>
> Cox has sent a memo to naval leaders about the significance of the Zimmermann Telegram so the lessons learned could 
> prove useful.
>
> https://ca.news.yahoo.com/secret-wwi-telegram-holds-lessons-134300998.html
>
> -- 
> Geoff.Goodfellow () iconia com
> living as The Truth is True
> http://geoff.livejournal.com  



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