nations would arise from the wreckage of the Habsburg Empire — ones that would become the cockpit of turmoil and instability over the next two decade… - Arthur Herman

The telegram offered the promise that if Mexico allied itself with Germany, then Germany would help Mexico "regain by conquest her lost territory in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico." It went even further, suggesting that Germany and Mexico also reach out to Japan, and encourage that country's defection from the Allied camp by "mediating a peace," while offering to let the Japanese join in the spoils taken from the breakup of America's presence along the Pacific.

When a German American vacationing in Florida was caught unprepared by a cold snap and exclaimed within hearing of witnesses, "[D]amn such a country as this," he was arrested for having violated the Espionage Act.

bombs set by German agents exploded in two factories in New Jersey.