"Zdislav V. Kovarik" <kovarik@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:Pine.WNT.4.58.0804041719180.-443505@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Thu, 3 Apr 2008, kujebak wrote:
>
> > This ain't just bad humor. This is like putting a turban
> > bomb on Mohammed:
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/24f325
> >
> > So much for Swedish booze in my martinis.
>
> There is a Cimrman story related to it (the website shows a map of
Mexico
> expanded at the USA's expense):
>
> In 1917, a newly nominated external affairs minister of the Imperial
> Germany, Arthur Zimmermann, sent a coded telegram to Mexico, inviting
> Mexicans to attack the USA from the south and try to acquire some of the
> territories, so that USA would stay away from the European war. With
some
> chutzpah, Zimmermann used the diplomatic channels of the then-neutral
USA.
>
> The Germans did not know that the British had broken their code, and
the
> British had a big problem, how to let the Merkins know, without giving
> away their knowledge of the code, or the fact that they had monitored US
> diplomatic channels. So, they staged an ambush of the messenger who
> carried the telegram personally from Wa****ngton, to make it look more
> cloak-and-dagger-like. Instrumental in this operation was also Emanuel
> Viktor Voska, an industrialist and friend of Prof. Masaryk. (Voska died
in
> 1960 in CSR, seriously ill after 10 years in Communist prison.)
>
> So, this telegram prompted USA to enter the European war, and the rest
is
> history.
>
> [Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram, ISBN 0-345-32425-0]
>
> Cheers, Slavek(ZVK)
More recommended reading for Zimmermann story:
David Kahn: The Codebreakers (The story of secret writing)
Simon Singh: The Code Book
Plus good measure reading for real life spy and dagger stories:
Leo Marks: Between Silk and Cyanide
Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin: The Sword and The ****eld
John O. Koehler: STASI
pjk
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