| Abstract: | Edward Bell (1882–1924), the American diplomat who dealt with British intelligence in the matter of the Zimmermann telegram, which pushed the United States into World War I, has been unknown in all but his name. This note offers a brief biography and photograph. It prints two unpublished memoranda that Bell wrote giving his inside story of the telegram, written to explain why an author should not reveal its solution. Also appended are a memo about that solution and its disclosure to the Americans by the telegram's main British cryptanalyst and a note revealing the ignorance of the German minister in Mexico about how the telegram came to Allied knowledge. |
