The Zimmerman Telegram would have never been decoded and shown to the Americans without the British helping us. The British had been intercepting German messages since 1914 with the help of a German codebook and diplomatic codebook given to them by the Russians that October. Months before the American people knew about the telegram and what it contained, Britain intercepted it and start to decode it. The telegram was intended for Mexico, and it stated that if America were to declare war on Germany, Mexico should declare war on America. Germany promised to fund an effort to take back land from America, but Mexico did no such thing. The Germans were hoping to hurt the Americans, and on March 1, 1917, American people learned about the telegram. A few days later, on March 29, Arthur Zimmerman said that the telegram was authentic. This caused the U.S. to cut all diplomatic ties with Germany, and it would be the final straw that pushed America into World War One.