Code Warriors

by Stephen Budiansky

  23. Thomas H. Dyer to Chief of Naval Operations, Recommendations Concerning the PostWar Organization of Communications Intelligence Activities, August 1, 1945, DNSArch, 2–3.

  24. Benson, U.S. Communications Intelligence, 35–36; Alfred McCormack to Generals Bratton and Lee, February 12, 1942, Special Branch, G-2, Military Intelligence Division, NR 3918, HCR.

  25. Carter Clarke to Alfred McCormack, May 6, 1942, Special Branch, G-2, Military Intelligence Division, NR 3918, HCR.

  26. Benson, Venona Story, 12.

  27. Joseph R. Redman, Memorandum for OP-02, January 23, 1946, DNSArch, 2.

  28. Cook, OH; Rowlett, OH.

  29. Frank B. Rowlett, Recollections of Work on Russian, February 11, 1965, Document 6, National Security Archive, Secret Sentry Declassified, 4; Peterson, “Before BOURBON,” 8–9; HV, 9–10. Rowlett recalled that Arlington Hall’s shadow teleprinter was copying traffic sent on a landline that the U.S. Army provided the Soviet embassy in Washington to communicate with Ladd Field, Alaska, where aircraft being supplied under Lend-Lease were turned over to the Russians. That was probably a misapprehension on his part; much more likely is that it was copying the Pentagon–Moscow teleprinter link described in Deane, Strange Alliance, 64–71.

  30. Hatch, Tordella, 1–2.

  31. HV, 20–21; Chronological Record of 3-G-10-Z (The Russian Language Section), June 1943–March 1947, DNSArch; Cryptographic Codes and Ciphers: Russian: B-01 System, NR 4115, HCR.

  32. Chronological Record of 3-G-10-Z (The Russian Language Section), June 1943–March 1947, DNSArch.

  33. HV, 27–28.

  34. Budiansky, Battle of Wits, 308–9; SSA General Cryptanalytic Branch—Annual Report FY 1945, NR 4360, HCR, 6; HV, 40–41.

  35. Budiansky, Battle of Wits, 263.

  36. SSA General Cryptanalytic Branch—Annual Report FY 1945, NR 4360, HCR, 1; Chronological Record of 3-G-10-Z (The Russian Language Section), June 1943–March 1947, DNSArch; Minutes of a Meeting Held in Captain J. N. Wenger’s Office, May 21, 1945, DNSArch.

  37. HV, 42–43.

  38. Budiansky, Battle of Wits, 171–79.

  39. Agreement Between British Government Code and Cipher School and U.S. War Department Regarding Special Intelligence, NR 2751, HCR; Erskine, “Holden Agreement.”

  40. Ferris, “British ‘Enigma,’ ” 172–74.

  41. Minutes of the Eighth Meeting of the Army-Navy Cryptanalytic Research and Development Committee, February 21, 1945, DNSArch, 3–4, 9; J. N. Wenger, Release of Free French Material to British, May 15, 1945, DNSArch; United Kingdom Base Section London to SSA, November 1, 1944, Clark Files, British Liaison, NR 4566, HCR.

  42. Smith, Station X, 136–38.

  43. Johnson, “Wenger.”

  44. J. N. Wenger to Edward Travis, January 18, 1946, DNSArch; J. N. Wenger, Collaboration with British on Rattan Project, May 21, 1945, DNSArch.

  45. R. S. Edwards, handwritten note on C. W. Cooke, Memorandum for Admiral King, June 4, 1945, DNSArch.

  46. Hewlett Thebaud, Memorandum for Admiral King, Rattan Project, Present Status of, June 4, 1945, DNSArch; Memorandum to be Shown (But Not Given) to Colonel H. M. O’Connor, June 12, 1945, DNSArch; Memorandum for Admiral King, Signal Intelligence Activities, and Note for Record by Clayton Bissell, June 6, 1945, DNSArch.

  47. HV, 29–32; Information from Robert L. Benson.

  48. Goldman, Crucial Decade, 28; “GIs Protest on Slow Demobilization,” NYT, January 13, 1946; “Army Seeks a Way Out of Morale Crisis,” ibid.; “Caution on Morale Given Eighth Army,” NYT, January 10, 1946.

  49. CW, 17, 26–27.

  50. FRUS, Intelligence Establishment, 1945–50, Introduction.

  51. Richard Park, Memorandum for the President, Parts I–III, Rose A. Conway Files, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO; Selected Documents Concerning OSS Operation in Lisbon 5 May–13 Jul 1943, SRH-113, Studies on Cryptology, NARA, 17–18; Recent Messages Dealing with the Compromise of Japanese Codes in Lisbon, NR 2608, HCR; Alvarez, Spies in Vatican, 248–52.

  52. McCullough, Truman, 429.

  53. Ibid., 355, 371–73.

  54. William D. Leahy, Memorandum for the Secretary of War and the Secretary of State, August 22, 1945, DNSArch.

  55. Memorandum, Harry S. Truman, August 28, 1945, NSA60; George C. Marshall and Ernest J. King, Collaboration with the British Foreign Office in the Communication Intelligence Field, Continuation and Extension of, September 1, 1945, DNSArch; Burns, Origins, 26.

  56. Op-20-G, Memorandum for the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, The Continuation and Development of Communication Intelligence, August 21, 1945, NSA60; James F. Byrnes to Secretary of War, August 17, 1945, DNSArch; Schlesinger, “Cryptanalysis for Peacetime.”

  57. Chronological Record of 3-G-10-Z (The Russian Language Section), June 1943–March 1947, DNSArch; J. N. Wenger to B. F. Roeder, December 27, 1945, DNSArch; SSA General Cryptanalytic Branch—Annual Report FY 1945, NR 4360, HCR, 3.

  58. Alvarez, “Codebreaking in Early Cold War,” 869, 875.

  59. J. N. Wenger, Army-Navy Collaboration in Communication Intelligence; Reasons for, February 16, 1945, DNSArch.

  60. Navy’s Interest in Processing of Intercepted Foreign Communications Other Than Military, September 19, 1945, DNSArch; Burns, Quest for Centralization, 29; J. N. Wenger to Commander Manson, February 20, 1946, DNSArch.

  61. W. F. Clarke, PostWar Organisation of G.C. and C.S., April 1, 1945, HW 3/30, TNA.

  62. Plan for Coordination of Army and Navy Communication Intelligence Activities, February 15, 1946, DNSArch; British-U.S. Communication Intelligence Agreement, March 5, 1946, NSA60; FRUS, Intelligence Establishment, 1945–50, Introduction; McCullough, Truman, 486; Gaddis, Kennan, 216–17.

  2 UNBREAKABLE CODES

  1. Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB, 370.

  2. Gouzenko, Iron Curtain, 264–77.

  3. HV, 62.

  4. Rhodes, Dark Sun, 127–28, 150–51.

  5. Craig, “Canadian Connection,” 216, 223n33; Rhodes, Dark Sun, 127.

  6. HV, 63.

  7. Ibid., 48.

  8. Ibid.; Army Security Agency, Cryptanalytic Branch Annual Report 1945–1946, author’s collection, 18.

  9. HV, 47, 70–73.

  10. Levenson, OH, 16; NSA and CIA, Venona, Preface; AC, I:278.

  11. Hatch, Tordella, 2; Davis, Candle in Dark, 9.

  12. HV, 22n44.

  13. Kirby, “Origins of Soviet Problem,” 54–55.

  14. Rezabek, “Last Great Secret,” 514–15; Marshall to Eisenhower, August 7, 1944, General Records, NARA.

  15. Levenson, OH, 3, 43–44; Final Report of TICOM Team 1, June 16, 1945, TArch, 1.

  16. Rezabek, “Last Great Secret,” 516; Final Report of TICOM Team 1, TArch, 24–25; Levenson, OH, 44, 48.

  17. Campaigne, OH, 24–25.

  18. Final Report of TICOM Team 1, TArch, 39–40.

  19. TICOM M-8, Tests on Baudot Equipment Conducted in the UK June 29 to July 8, 1945, TArch; Rezabek, “Russian Fish,” 65–67; Rezabek, “Search for OKW/Chi,” 147–48.

  20. Final Report of TICOM Team 3 on Exploitation of Bergscheidungen, TArch, 1–5; HV, 54–59, 73.

  21. TICOM I-173, Report by the Karrenberg Party on Russian W/T, December 16, 1945, TArch; TICOM I-168, Report by the Karrenberg Party on Miscellaneous Russian W/T, November 12, 1945, TArch; Final Report of TICOM Team 1, TArch, 40–41. A complete list of Russian code systems studied by the Germans appears in European Axis Signals Intelligence in World War II as Revealed by “TICOM” Investigations, Volume 1, Synopsis, NSAD.

  22. TICOM DF-98, Russian Baudot Teletype Scrambler, TArch; TICOM I-169, Report by Uffz. Karrenberg on the Bandwurm, December 2, 1945, TArch.

  23. TICOM I-30, Interrogation of Uffz. Karrenberg at Steeple Claydon, July 7, 1945, TArch; TICOM I-169, ibid.

  24. TICOM I-169, ibid.

  25. Cryptanalysis of “Caviar,” ca. 1945, DNSArch.

  26. Summary of War Diary G4A April 1946; H. Campaigne, Report on Stat
us of Projects, August 7, 1946, handwritten note with Summary of War Diary G4-A June 1946. I am grateful to Ralph Erskine for copies of these subsequently reclassified Op-20-G4A war diaries.

  27. TICOM M-7, Report on Multichannel Intercept Teletype (HMFS), July 22, 1945, TArch; Davis, Candle in Dark, 7.

  28. The evidence that Longfellow and Caviar are one and the same is circumstantial but convincing. Longfellow is unmistakably referred to in several available documents as a Russian teleprinter encipherment device. Howard Campaigne stated that Longfellow was first used in 1943 (WM, 267). All available evidence, from TICOM and elsewhere, points to the Soviets’ having only one such teleprinter encipherment system at that time. In the Op-20-G4A war diaries for December 1945 through July 1946, the terms Caviar and Longfellow appear at different times but never together in the same month’s report. A list of continuing projects in December 1945 includes “Attack on Caviar”; in the next month’s report the list includes “Attack on Longfellow,” with no mention of Caviar, even though the project was definitely continuing at that point. In April 1946 the war diary notes that a Lieutenant Clymer has “been borrowed from NY1” group to work on Caviar; in August 1946 the diary reports that “Lt. Clymer has returned to NY1, taking with him the problem of reading depths on Longfellow.”

  29. J. N. Wenger to Sir Edward W. Travis, ca. February 15, 1947, DNSArch; Tan Analog, Cryptanalytic Machines in NSA, May 30, 1953, Friedman Documents, NSAD; WM, 224, 267.

  30. Clayton Bissell, PostWar Signal Intelligence Activities, June 16, 1945, DNSArch; U.S. Navy Communication Intelligence Organization Ultimate PostWar Strength, 1945, NSA60.

  31. Budiansky, “Cecil Phillips,” 98; Alvarez, Secret Messages, 121–22; Budiansky, Battle of Wits, 231.

  32. The 6813 News, vol. 1, no. 2, September 11, 1947, NCM.

  33. Personnel Policy at Army Security Agency, December 23, 1946, ASA Personnel Strength and Policy Memoranda, 1945–1951, General Records, NARA; Brownell Report, 126.

  34. J. N. Wenger, The Continuation and Development of Communication Intelligence, August 21, 1945, NSA60, 4–5; Hatch, Tordella, 3; Campaigne, OH, 53; Personnel Requirements for Peacetime Operation of Communication Intelligence Organization, May 9, 1946, DNSArch.

  35. Army Security Agency Monthly Status Report for May 1946, DNSArch; Budiansky, Battle of Wits, 165, 215.

  36. Frank B. Rowlett, Staff Study on Personnel Needs, March 17, 1945, ASA Personnel Strength and Policy Memoranda, 1945–1951, General Records, NARA.

  37. Code Word CREAM ASA Interpretation, ca. 1946, DNSArch.

  38. Myron C. Cramer, Legality of Signal Intelligence Activities, August 16, 1945, DNSArch.

  39. Snider, “Church Committee’s Investigation”; U.S. Senate, Supplementary Staff Reports, 770–74; Carter W. Clarke, Memorandum for the Honorable James Forrestal, December 13, 1947, DNSArch.

  40. Walter L. Pforzheimer, Crypto Security Bill, February 19, 1948, DNSArch.

  3 LEARNING TO LIE

  1. NSA and CIA, Venona, Preface.

  2. Benson, Venona Story, 15.

  3. HV, 75, 77.

  4. Ibid., 77–80; I. D. Special Analysis Report #1, Covernames in Diplomatic Traffic, August 30, 1947, VENONA Documents, NSAD.

  5. Development of the “G”—“HOMER” Case, October 11, 1951, VENONA Documents, NSAD.

  6. HV, 74, 89; McKnight, “Moscow–Canberra Cables,” 164.

  7. Arrangements for Contact with “DAN” in Great Britain, September 15, 1945, VENONA Documents, NSAD.

  8. Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev, Spies, 400.

  9. Pipes, Russian Revolution, 109–19.

  10. Gaddis, Kennan, 97, 195, 220.

  11. Ibid., 220.

  12. Ibid., 189–90, 226; CW, 29.

  13. Gaddis, Kennan, 221–22, 229–30.

  14. CW, 11; Montefiore, Stalin, 5; McCullough, Truman, 418–19.

  15. Montefiore, Stalin, 6–7.

  16. Pipes, Russian Revolution, 789–805; Pipes, Bolshevik Regime, 121.

  17. Montefiore, Stalin, 228–29, 232–33, 243, 244; CW, 99.

  18. Gaddis, Kennan, 105.

  19. Montefiore, Stalin, 505–7.

  20. Pipes, Russian Revolution, 801.

  21. McCullough, Truman, 533, 561; CW, 30.

  22. McCullough, Truman, 541, 545, 561.

  23. Ibid., 565; Goldman, Crucial Decade, 77.

  24. National Security Council Directive on Office of Special Projects, NSC 10/2, June 18, 1948, FRUS, Intelligence Establishment, 1945–1950, 714.

  25. CW, 163–64.

  26. “Public Trust in Government: 1958–2014,” Pew Research Center, November 13, 2014, Web.

  27. Gaddis, Kennan, 221.

  28. United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, NSC-28, April 14, 1950, FRUS 1950, National Security, 234–92.

  29. CW, 165–66.

  30. NSA and CIA, Venona, Preface; Haynes and Klehr, Venona, 157–60.

  31. McCullough, Truman, 537–39, 860.

  32. Ibid., 551–53, 652, 768; NSA and CIA, Venona, Preface.

  33. D. M. Ladd to H. B. Fletcher, [Redacted] Material, October 18, 1949, DNSArch.

  34. WM, 224.

  35. William F. Friedman, A Progenitor of [Pagoda]: Or, Can Cryptologic History Repeat Itself, July 21, 1948, Friedman Documents, NSAD.

  36. Summary of War Diary G4A April 1946, copy from Ralph Erskine.

  37. Comdr. P. H. Currier to Captain Wenger, April 8, 1947, DNSArch; Denham, “Hugh Alexander,” 31; Stork, Piccolo I–IV, Cryptanalytic Machines in NSA, May 30, 1954, Friedman Documents, NSAD.

  38. Analysis of the Hagelin Cryptograph B-211, Technical Paper, Signal Intelligence Service, 1939, NR 3833, HCR, 1–7.

  39. Hagelin, “Story of Cryptos,” 216; Summary of War Diary G4A March 1946, copy from Ralph Erskine; Alvarez, “Behind Venona,” 180, 185n4; Davis, Candle in Dark, 16.

  40. C to Prime Minister, June 24, 1941, HW 1/6, TNA.

  41. Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB, 216–17, 304–5, 400; Benson, Venona Story, 50; Information from Baron, April 3, 1941, VENONA Documents, NSAD.

  42. Kahn, “Soviet COMINT,” 14.

  43. Burns, Origins, 7–9.

  44. Budiansky, Battle of Wits, 228–29; Commander Humphrey Sandwith, May 20, 1942, HW 14/46, TNA.

  45. Burns, Origins, 37–39; HV, 87.

  46. Burns, Origins, 53–55; Kirby, OH, 16.

  47. F. L. Lucs, quoted in Smith, Station X, 35.

  48. Bennett, “Hut 3,” 34–35; Hinsley et al., British Intelligence, III:402.

  49. Peterson, “Beyond BOURBON,” 2–3; Kirby, OH, 18.

  4 DIGITAL DAWN

  1. Goldstine, Computer, 167.

  2. Ibid., 182.

  3. Ibid., 191, 214.

  4. Tomash and Cohen, “Birth of ERA,” 84.

  5. Campaigne, OH, 54; Pendergrass, OH, 13.

  6. Pendergrass, OH, 10–11.

  7. J. T. Pendergrass, Cryptanalytic Use of High-Speed Digital Computing Machines, 1946, NCM, 1.

  8. Tomash and Cohen, “Birth of ERA,” 84–85; Development Contract with Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation—Summary of Background Information, Bureau of Ships, August 16, 1946, DNSArch.

  9. Parker, OH, 15.

  10. Tomash and Cohen, “Birth of ERA,” 85–88; Parker, OH, 23, 27.

  11. Tomash and Cohen, “Birth of ERA,” 90–91; Gray, “Atlas Computer”; Eachus et al., “Computers at NSA,” 7.

  12. Pendergrass, OH, 15–16.

  13. Tomash and Cohen, “Birth of ERA,” 90; Snyder, NSA Computers, 8.

  14. History of Machine Branch, NR 3247, HCR, 40–41; History of Cryptanalysis of Japanese Army Codes, NR 3072, HCR, 36–38.

  15. History of Machine Branch, NR 3247, HCR, Appendix II; IBM Slide Runs, Use of High-Speed Cryptanalytic Equipment, September 14, 1945, NR 2807, HCR.

  16. Brief Descriptions of RAM Equipment, October 1947, NR 1494, HCR, 14–19; WM, 171–73.

  17. William F. Friedman, Development of RAM, June 14, 1945, NR 2808, HCR; Goo
d, “Enigma and Fish,” 163; Brief Descriptions of RAM Equipment, October 1947, NR 1494, HCR.

  18. WM, 178–79, 199.

  19. Snyder, NSA Computers, 8–9.

  20. Ibid., 17–19.

  21. Ibid., 21–22.

  22. Dumey, OH, 7.

  23. Snyder, NSA Computers, 22.

  24. WM, 221–24; Goldberg, Cryptanalytic Machines in NSA, May 30, 1953, Friedman Documents, NSAD; Demon I–III, Brief Description of Analytic Machine Fourth Installment, September 20, 1954, ibid.; Gray, “Atlas Computer.”

  25. Clay, Decision in Germany, 366.

  26. CW, 33, 71.

  27. McCullough, Truman, 630–31, 647–48; Rhodes, Dark Sun, 329–30.

  28. Lilienthal, Journals, 391.

  29. Developments in Soviet Cypher and Signals Security, 1946–1948, ca. December 21, 1948, DNSArch; WM, 267; Alvarez, “Behind Venona,” 185n4.

  30. TI Item #137, NT-1 Traffic Intelligence, November 2, 1948, DNSArch.

  31. Information from Robert L. Benson.

  32. On Watch, 19.

  33. Peterson, “Beyond BOURBON,” 17; WM, 274–75.

  34. Information from Robert L. Benson.

  35. Peterson, “Beyond BOURBON,” 24–25.

  36. Ibid., 11–12.

  37. Davis, Candle in Dark, 16.

  38. Ibid., 16–17.

  39. Peterson, “Beyond BOURBON,” 8, 33; Davis, Candle in Dark, 16–19. Although the entire text of the initial 1946 agreement has been declassified, NSA as of 2015 has refused to release any of the thirty pages of Appendix K. (UKUSA COMINT Agreement and Appendices Thereto, 1951–1953, NSAD.)

  40. Davis, Candle in Dark, 18, 25.

  41. Ibid., 29, 53.

  42. History of Cryptanalysis of Japanese Army Codes, NR 3072, HCR; Davis, Candle in Dark, 10–11, 15–17.

  43. Davis, Candle in Dark, 6–7.

  44. Williams, Invisible Cryptologists, 8–9.

  45. Ibid., 10–12, 24–25.

  46. Brownell Report, 86; Williams, Invisible Cryptologists, 19–23.

  47. Williams, Invisible Cryptologists, 21.

  48. Brownell Report, 86; Peterson, “Beyond BOURBON,” 33; Williams, Invisible Cryptologists, 20–21.

  49. Williams, Invisible Cryptologists, 27–29, 35, 39.