The telegram instructed Eckardt that if the United States appeared certain to enter the war, he was to approach the Mexican government with a proposal for military alliance with funding from Germany. The decoded telegram was follows: We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare.
February 1917 telegram sent by the German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German minister in Mexico. The telegram suggested that in the event that Germany and the US went to war, Mexico would regain "lost territories" in the southwest if it declared war on the US.
