Code Warriors

by Stephen Budiansky

  5 SHOOTING WARS

  1. East, “European Theater and VQ-2.”

  2. Schindler, Dangerous Business, 3.

  3. East, “Pacific and VQ-1.”

  4. McCullough, Truman, 748–49.

  5. Ibid., 756–58; Rhodes, Dark Sun, 405.

  6. Rosenberg, “Origins of Overkill,” 16; Rhodes, Dark Sun, 347.

  7. Budiansky, Air Power, 348–50, 361–63, 365.

  8. Rosenberg, “Origins of Overkill,” 17.

  9. Ibid., 21n58.

  10. East, “European Theater and VQ-2.”

  11. Peterson, “Soviet Shootdowns,” 5; AC, I:141; Schindler, Dangerous Business, 1.

  12. “Partial History of ELINT,” 55–56.

  13. Rosenberg, “Origins of Overkill,” 47.

  14. Robertson Committee, Appendix III:1–2.

  15. Ibid., Appendix VI:1–4.

  16. Budiansky, Battle of Wits, 48.

  17. J. H. Plumb, Notes on the Future of Signals Analysis, October 18, 1944, HW 3/30, TNA, 1; Callimahos, “Traffic Analysis.”

  18. Robertson Committee, 24, Appendix IX:3

  19. Frahm, SIGINT and Pusan, 3–5; Brownell Report, 66.

  20. Burns, Quest for Centralization, 70.

  21. Aid, “US Humint and Comint,” 25–27.

  22. Ibid.

  23. CW, 41–43.

  24. Hatch and Benson, Korean War, 4–5, 8.

  25. Frahm, SIGINT and Pusan, 6–7, 11–13; Aid, “US Humint and Comint,” 46–47; Aid, Secret Sentry, 27.

  26. CW, 45.

  27. Vanderpool, “PRC Intervention,” 9–14.

  28. Aid, Secret Sentry, 32; Halberstam, Coldest Winter, 373–77.

  29. Drea, MacArthur’s ULTRA, 28–30; Aid, “US Humint and Comint,” 45, 52–53.

  30. Halberstam, Coldest Winter, 371; FRUS 1950, Korea, 953.

  31. Aid, “US Humint and Comint,” 49; Aid, Secret Sentry, 31–32.

  32. Vanderpool, “PRC Intervention,” 17–18.

  33. Halberstam, Coldest Winter, 476–77.

  34. AC, I:55.

  35. AC, I:40. For the history of Y units, see Howe, Signal Intelligence.

  36. Aid, “US Humint and Comint,” 42–43.

  37. Futtrell, “Intelligence in Korean War,” 280–81; AC, I:41–42; Aid, “US Humint and Comint,” 46.

  38. AC, I:48–49; Aid, “Comint in Korean War, Part II,” 38–41.

  39. AC, I:49–51.

  40. Wiley D. Ganey to Curtis LeMay, June 20, 1952, DNSArch; CW, 60.

  41. Hatch and Benson, Korean War SIGINT, 15.

  42. Brownell Report, 105.

  43. Burns, Quest for Centralization, 73–74, 77–78; AC, I:27, 30.

  44. Johnson, “Cryptology During Korean War”; J. N. Wenger, Memorandum for Mr. Brownell, March 13, 1952, NSA60; Aid, “US Humint and Comint,” 49–51; Brownell Report, 79; AC, I:29–30.

  45. Brownell Report, 89, 119–20; Burns, Quest for Centralization, 79, 87–88; Kirby, “Origins of Soviet Problem,” 57.

  46. Burns, Quest for Centralization, 54.

  47. Ibid., 90–92; Truman Memorandum, Communications Intelligence Activities, October 24, 1952, NSA60.

  48. Macintyre, Spy Among Friends, 143, 148.

  49. Ibid., 28, 36.

  50. Ibid., 19, 46, 70–71, 132–35.

  51. Haynes and Klehr, Venona, 52–53.

  52. Lamphere, FBI-KGB, 133–35; Benson, Venona Story, 19–20.

  53. Rhodes, Dark Sun, 55, 153–55, 422.

  54. Benson, Venona Story, 13–14; Lamphere, FBI-KGB, 178–86; J. Edgar Hoover to Rear Admiral Robert L. Dennison, July 18, 1950, Document 32, NSA and CIA, Venona, Part I.

  55. Andrew, History of MI5, 376–78.

  56. NSA and CIA, Venona, Preface, n59; Haynes and Klehr, Venona, 52.

  57. Macintyre, Spy Among Friends, 144, 147, 149; New York to Moscow, June 28, 1944, VENONA Documents, NSAD; Development of the “G”—”HOMER” Case, October 11, 1951, ibid.

  58. Macintyre, Spy Among Friends, 146–49.

  59. Ibid., 150–51, 154–55.

  60. Ibid., 159, 163–64, 167, 195, 258.

  61. William Wolf Weisband, Washington Field Office, FBI, November 27, 1953, Document 34, NSA and CIA, Venona, Part I.

  62. Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev, Spies, 402–4; Haynes and Klehr, “Vassiliev’s Notebooks,” 17–24.

  63. Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev, Spies, 405; AC, I:277–78.

  6 “AN OLD MULE SKINNER”

  1. Appointment Books, 1951–57, Canine, Papers.

  2. “Glimpses of a Man,” 31; Gurin, “Ralph J. Canine,” 8, 10; Canine, OH, I:2, III:20.

  3. Canine, OH, I:2.

  4. Charles P. Collins, quoted in AC, I:62.

  5. “From Chaos Born,” 28.

  6. Gurin, “Ralph J. Canine,” 7; Canine, OH, I:3.

  7. Gurin, “Ralph J. Canine,” 8.

  8. Retirement Book, Canine, Papers; Gurin, “Ralph J. Canine,” 9–10; AC, I:64–67.

  9. Canine, OH, II:7.

  10. Ibid., II:17–18.

  11. Ibid., II:5; Gurin, “Ralph J. Canine,” 8.

  12. AC, I:64.

  13. Johnson, “Human Side.”

  14. Information from Lewis Lord.

  15. Johnson, “Human Side.”

  16. NSA Personnel Newsletters, 1953–1960, NCM.

  17. Canine, OH, III:21.

  18. Clark, Man Who Broke Purple, 199.

  19. Johnson, “War’s Aftermath”; Boone, “Management Challenges.”

  20. Public Law 81-513, codified as 18 USC §798 of the Espionage Act; Croner, “Espionage Act Constitutionality.”

  21. Recommendations Relative to the Film “Venetian Incident,” January 12, 1953, Physical Security, Security Policy and Direction Files, NARA.

  22. Clark, Man Who Broke Purple, 194; Coffey, OH; Sheldon, Friedman Collection, 6–7; Classification of Material Received from Mr. Friedman, February 6, 1959, Friedman Documents, NSAD.

  23. Minutes of the Second Meeting of the USCIB Committee on Personnel Security Standards and Practices, October 11, 1955, DNSArch, 14.

  24. J. Edgar Hoover quoted in U.S. Congress, Security Practices, 14–15; National Research Council, Polygraph and Lie Detection.

  25. U.S. Congress, Security Practices, 11; Report and Recommendations on Procedures Implementing USCIB Directive #5, September 19, 1955, DNSArch, 2.

  26. AC, I:73–74; Duncan Sinclair, Memorandum for the Record, August 7, 1956, Modified Interview Program—1956, General Records, NARA.

  27. AC, I:74; Sheldon, Friedman Collection, 12, 71; MacDonald, “Lie-Detector Era,” 23–25, 29; Howard Campaigne, Memorandum for the Chief of Staff, Subject: The Polygraph, May 11, 1953, Friedman Documents, NSAD.

  28. The Petersen Case, Memorandum for the Members of USCIB, May 5, 1955, DNSArch, 2.

  29. Wiebes, “Petersen Spy Case,” 490–93.

  30. Ibid., 494, 497–99.

  31. AC, I:279; Mowry, “Petersen.”

  32. “Dutch Say Petersen Gave Data, but They Thought He Had Right,” NYT, October 20, 1954; AC, I:280.

  33. The Petersen Case, Memorandum for the Members of USCIB, May 5, 1955, DNSArch, 1; Wiebes, “Petersen Spy Case,” 500–501, 505–7, 510, 528.

  34. William P. Rogers to Allen W. Dulles, November 18, 1954, DNSArch; Wiebes, “Petersen Spy Case,” 520–21, 523.

  35. The Petersen Case, Memorandum for the Members of USCIB, May 5, 1955, DNSArch, 1–2.

  36. Ibid., 2; Wiebes, “Petersen Spy Case,” 504; Frank Lewis, letter to author, March 20, 1999.

  37. Aldrich, “GCHQ in Cold War,” 91.

  38. WM, 277; Alleviation of Overcrowding upon Initial Occupancy of NSA Operations Building at Fort Meade, June 1, 1955, NSA60.

  39. AC, I:206–9; Task Force Report on Intelligence Activities, Appendix I, May 1955 [Clark Report], DNSArch, 1:11.

  40. AC, I:50–51, 112, 118; Aid, “Comint in Korean War, Part II,” 38.

  41. Smith, New Cloak, 180–82; Aldrich, “GCHQ in Cold War,” 7
4–78.

  42. UKUSA COMINT Agreement and Appendices Thereto, March 5, 1946, Parts 6 and 8, NSAD; Aid, Secret Sentry, 12–13; Aldrich, “GCHQ in Cold War,” 76–77.

  43. Aldrich, “GCHQ in Cold War,” 81, 84.

  44. Bower, Perfect English Spy, 159–61; Macintyre, Spy Among Friends, 198–202.

  45. Taubman, Khrushchev, 355–58; “CIA Files Reveal Cold War Leader’s Anger,” BBC News, November 6, 2009, Web; Macintyre, Spy Among Friends, 203.

  46. “British to Debate Frogman Episode,” NYT, May 11, 1956; Macintyre, Spy Among Friends, 202–5.

  47. Aldrich, “GCHQ in Cold War,” 83–85.

  48. Easter, “GCHQ in 1960s,” 683; Aldrich, “GCHQ in Cold War,” 67.

  49. Hodges, Turing, 496–97.

  50. Canine, OH, I:8.

  51. Ibid., III:14–15; Management Development at the Executive Level: A Planned Program, July 1, 1952, Canine, Papers.

  52. Gurin, “Cryptologic Mission”; Exinterne, “Intern Program, Part Three,” 16.

  53. Lewis, “May Rub Off,” 2.

  54. “Finding a Home for AFSA,” 1; AC, I:66.

  55. “Finding a Home for AFSA,” 2; Preliminary Field Survey, Louisville and Fort Knox Area, Administrative and Morale Section, 8 to 18 August, 1951, NSA60, 3, 5, 17.

  56. Johnson, “The Move,” 95–96.

  57. Ibid., 97–99; Canine, OH, II:9; Collins, History of SIGINT, III:40.

  7 BRAINS VERSUS BUGS

  1. Brownell Report, 83, 137–38; Robertson Committee, 2; Task Force Report on Intelligence Activities [Clark Report], May 1955, DNSArch, 1:48, 57a.

  2. “Before SuperComputers”; Lavington, “Description of Oedipus”; Baker Panel, 7.

  3. Summary of Early Operations on the Robin Machinery, May 18, 1951, document released to author under NSA Mandatory Declassification Review, May 13, 2015; WM, 274–75; Meeting of Special Communications Advisory Group (SCAG), March 12, 1952, Friedman Documents, NSAD, 12–13, 47.

  4. Stamp and Chan, “SIGABA Keyspace,” 208.

  5. Antal and Zajac, “Key Space of Fialka”; “M-125 (Fialka),” Crypto Museum, Web.

  6. Baker Panel, 1, 3, Technical Adjunct III:3.

  7. Gaddis, Kennan, 89, 106; Kahn, “Soviet COMINT,” 16–17.

  8. Andrew and Mitrokhin, Sword and Shield, 338.

  9. Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB, 226–28, 451–53.

  10. Gaddis, Kennan, 464–65; Brooker and Gomez, “Termen’s Bug,” 4; Andrew and Mitrokhin, Sword and Shield, 338.

  11. Nikitin, “Theremin,” 254–55; Brooker and Gomez, “Termen’s Bug,” 5–8.

  12. Nikitin, “Theremin,” 252–53; Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev, Spies, 362–66.

  13. Hove, Diplomatic Security, 175–78; Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB, 452–53.

  14. Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB, 454; Kahn, “Soviet COMINT,” 7, 9–10.

  15. AC, I:93; Sinkov, OH, 119; Buffham, OH, 17.

  16. Staff D Comments on Part I of Clark Report, DNSArch; Aid, Secret Sentry, 46.

  17. Murphy, Kondrashev, and Bailey, Battleground Berlin, 208; “Engineering the Berlin Tunnel.”

  18. Steury, ed., Intelligence War in Berlin, Part V; Murphy, Kondrashev, and Bailey, Battleground Berlin, 206; Operation REGAL, 2–3.

  19. Thomas, Very Best Men, 130–32; “America’s James Bond: The New Biography of William King Harvey,” Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, IN), April 28, 2007.

  20. CIA, Berlin Tunnel Operation, 3–4.

  21. Murphy, Kondrashev, and Bailey, Battleground Berlin, 213, 219.

  22. “Engineering the Berlin Tunnel”; CIA, Berlin Tunnel Operation, 17, 21, 25–26.

  23. Operation REGAL, 3, 10; Hatch, “Berlin Tunnel, Part II”; CIA, Berlin Tunnel Operation, Appendix B: Recapitulation of the Intelligence Derived.

  24. Murphy, Kondrashev, and Bailey, Battleground Berlin, 216; Macintyre, Spy Among Friends, 233–39.

  25. “Revealed: Grim Fate of the MI6 Agents Betrayed by George Blake,” Telegraph, March 14, 2015.

  26. Steury, ed., Intelligence War in Berlin, Part V; Gurin, “Ralph J. Canine,” 10; Murphy, Kondrashev, and Bailey, Battleground Berlin, 227.

  27. CIA, Berlin Tunnel Operation, 21, 27, Appendix D: Round-Up of East German Press Reaction; Operation REGAL, 19; Murphy, Kondrashev, and Bailey, Battleground Berlin, 232.

  28. CIA, Berlin Tunnel Operation, Appendix C: Typical American Press Comment.

  29. Operation REGAL, 1–2; CIA, Berlin Tunnel Operation, 2; “TEMPEST: Signal Problem,” 26–27.

  30. “TEMPEST: Signal Problem,” 27–28.

  31. Baker Panel, 4, 9.

  32. Hannah, “Frank B. Rowlett,” 10.

  33. CW, 107–8.

  34. Ibid.; Murphy, Kondrashev, and Bailey, Battleground Berlin, 159–61.

  35. CW, 108–9.

  36. Hungary, October 25, 1956, Document 0000119733, CIAL; Colley, “Shadow Warriors,” 30; Military Activity Connected with the Hungarian Crisis, October 27, 1956, Document 0000119739, CIAL; Current Intelligence Weekly Review, November 8, 1956, Document 0000119763, CIAL, Part I, 8.

  37. Suez Crisis, 19–20; Aid, Secret Sentry, 48.

  38. Suez Crisis, 31–32.

  39. AC, I:235.

  40. Suez Crisis, 30–31; AC, I:239.

  41. Baker Panel, 56–57, Digest: 3.

  42. Ibid., Synopsis:7.

  43. WM, 308–9.

  44. Brown, Scientific Advisory Board, 8; Special Cryptologic Advisory Group (SCAG), Agenda for First Conference of SCAG, 4–5 June 1951, Friedman Documents, NSAD; Meeting of Special Communications Advisory Group (SCAG), March 12, 1952, ibid., 37; John A. Samford to W. O. Baker, September 24, 1957, Baker Panel 1957–1963, Baker, Papers.

  45. Comments on SCAMP, October 22, 1952, Friedman Documents, NSAD; C. B. Tompkins, Summary of a Meeting at Which NSA and SCAMP Problems Were Discussed, April 17, 1955, ibid., 5.

  46. C. B. Tompkins, ibid., 7, 9, 16.

  47. Snyder, “Influence on Computer Industry,” 81; HARVEST in Perspective, HARVEST General Purpose Computer & 7950 Data Processing System, 1957–1959, Research Files Relating to HARVEST, NARA, 5.

  48. Meyer, “Wailing Wall,” 73, 78.

  49. Report of Special Study Group on FARMER-NOMAD, November 15, 1954, Friedman Documents, NSAD, 15–23; WM, 314.

  50. Recommendations for a Full-Scale Attack on the Russian High-Level Systems, June 8, 1956, document released to author under NSA Mandatory Declassification Review, May 13, 2015.

  51. WM, 295–98; Estimated EDPM Rental Budget, HARVEST General Purpose Computer & 7950 Data Processing System, 1957–1959, Research Files Relating to HARVEST, NARA; Snyder, NSA Computers, 40, 60–61, 93–94.

  52. WM, 298, 312; HARVEST Purchase Description, Research Files Relating to HARVEST, NARA; Snyder, NSA Computers, 22, 42, 55.

  53. Snyder, “Influence on Computer Industry,” 80; WM, 301–7; Brown, Scientific Advisory Board, 28.

  54. WM, 313–16, 324n150; Baker Panel, Appendix I:1; Bissell, NSA Cryptanalytic Efforts, 12–14.

  55. Baker Panel, 24, 62, Appendix II:16–17.

  56. Baker Panel, 28, 56–57; WM, 301.

  57. Lewis, “May Rub Off,” 5.

  58. Baker Panel, Technical Adjunct III:5; Shannon, “Entropy of English,” 50.

  59. Baker Panel, Appendix II:1–14, Technical Adjunct I:1.

  60. Buffham, OH, 18; Brown, Scientific Advisory Board, 44.

  61. Baker Panel, Technical Adjunct III:4.

  8 DAYS OF CRISIS

  1. Audio Recording of Press Conference, William H. Martin and Bernon F. Mitchell, Moscow, September 6, 1960, NSA60; “Two Code Clerks Defect to Soviet, Score U.S. ‘Spying,’ ” NYT, September 7, 1960.

  2. CW, 167–68.

  3. Taubman, Khrushchev, 460, 462–63, 467, 468; CW, 168.

  4. The Security Program of AFSA and NSA, 1949–1962, NSA Historian, Office of Central Reference, October 1963, 207–27; Summary of Office of Security Services investigation, July 26, 1960, to February 1, 1961. I am grateful to Rick Ande
rson for supplying copies of these declassified documents. Additional details on NSA’s investigation mentioned here are found in Missing NSA Personnel, Memorandum for Deputy Secretary Douglas, August 1, 1960, NSA60.

  5. Rick Anderson, “The Worst Internal Scandal in NSA History Was Blamed on Cold War Defectors Homosexuality,” Seattle Weekly News, July 17, 2007; Predeparture Statement, “Text of Statements Read in Moscow by Former U.S. Security Agency Workers,” NYT, September 7, 1960.

  6. U.S. Congress, Security Practices, 14–15; Security Program of AFSA and NSA, 226–27.

  7. Anderson, “Worst Internal Scandal.”

  8. Sergeant Jack E. Dunlap, U.S. Army, November 22, 1963, DNSArch; Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB, 459–60.

  9. Ibid.; Kahn, Codebreakers, 696–97; AC, II:470.

  10. U.S. Congress, Security Practices, 10–12; Kahn, Codebreakers, 695–96.

  11. Gurin, “Ralph J. Canine,” 10.

  12. Paul S. Willard, Memo for the Record, October 5, 1960, Martin and Mitchell Defection, General Records, NARA.

  13. Burke, ed., “Last Bombe Run.”

  14. Budiansky, Battle of Wits, 293.

  15. Clark, Man Who Broke Purple, 162.

  16. Notes and Draft of Historical Record of Boris Hagelin, Friedman Documents, NSAD; “The Hagelin Cryptographer, Type CX-52, Instructions for Operation,” Crypto Museum, Web.

  17. Personal for Friedman from Canine, July 22, 1954, Personal Messages Concerning Hagelin Machines, Friedman Documents, NSAD; Ralph J. Canine, Memorandum for the Members of USCIB, December 17, 1954, ibid.

  18. Currier from Shinn, November 15, 1955, Personal Messages Concerning Hagelin Machines, ibid.; Friedman Letter to Hagelin, Oral Report from Barlow on Visit to Hagelin, November 29, 1956, ibid.

  19. Report of Visit to Crypto A.G. (Hagelin) by William F. Friedman, 21–28 February 1955, ibid., 20–21; Report by William F. Friedman to the Director, Armed Forces Security Agency on the Aktiebolaget Cryptoteknik, Stockholm, Sweden (The Hagelin Cryptograph Company), May 22, 1951, Negotiations in Regard to Hagelin Machines, ibid., 1, 5; Personal for Friedman from Canine, July 22, 1954, Personal Messages Concerning Hagelin Machines, ibid.

  20. Friedman Memorandum to General Canine Passing on Extract of Letter from Hagelin Commenting on Siemens Random Tape Device, August 7, 1956, ibid.

  21. Memorandum for the Record, Subject: Hagelin Negotiations, December 18, 1957, ibid., 14, 17–18. The more secure versions of the machine were most likely supplied with extra rotors that could be swapped in and out, considerably increasing the number of permutations that a codebreaker would need to try.