HARVARD HISTORICAL STUDIES • 162 Published under the auspices of the Department of History from the income of the Paul Revere Frothingham Bequest Robert Louis Stroock Fund Henry Warren Torrey Fund NEXUS ◆ ◆ ◆ STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AND AMERICAN SECURITY IN WORLD WAR I Jonathan Reed Winkler HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England Copyright © 2008 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2013 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Winkler, Jonathan Reed, 1975– Nexus : strategic communications and American security in World War I / Jonathan Reed Winkler. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-674-02839-5 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-674-72577-5 (pbk.) 1. World War, 1914–1918—United States. 2. United States—Foreign relations— 1913–1921. 3. World War, 1914–1918—Diplomatic history. 4. National security— United States—History—20th century. 5. Strategy—History—20th century. 6. World War, 1914–1918—Communications. 7. Communication, International— History—20th century. 8. Communication in politics—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. D619.W6972008 940.3'2273—dc22 2007043112 Contents Maps and Figures vii Introduction 1 ONE The Information Network and the Outbreak of War 5 TWO Neutrality and Vulnerability 34 THREE Security and Radios 61 FOUR At War in Europe 100 FIVE In Pursuit of Cables to Asia and the Americas 136 SIX Radio, the Navy, and Latin America 165 SEVEN The Quest for Independence 206 EIGHT The Illusion of Success 239 Conclusion 266 Abbreviations 283 Primary Sources 285 Notes 289 Acknowledgments 337 Index 339 Maps and Figures Maps Principal Atlantic cables, 1914 10 Principal east Asian cables, 1914 11 German Atlantic communications, 1914 18 German east Asian communications, 1914 19 Principal South American cables, 1914 54 Principal North Atlantic cables, 1914 106 Figures United States wavelength allocations, 1912–1916 73 U.S. Navy Proposal for hemispheric radio nework, 1916 89 Original cable lines 223 Severed cable lines 223 Nexus