Paul J Kriha wrote:
> "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
I second that. Those are absolutely excellent books!
Cheers
Frank
--
<feeb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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