Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency (107 page)

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES

HSTL: Harry S. Truman Presidential
Library

DDEL: Dwight David Eisenhower
Presidential Library

JFKL: John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Presidential Library

LBJL: Lyndon B. Johnson
Presidential Library

NSAN: National Security Agency
Newsletter

NSA: Unless otherwise noted, all
NSA items came from the National Security Agency.

JCS: Joint Chiefs of Staff

FRUS: U.S. Department of State,
Foreign Relations of the U.S. Series

ARRB: Assassinations Records
Review Board

TICOM: Army Security Agency, Top
Secret/Cream report, "European Axis Signal

Intelligence in World War II as
Revealed by 'TICOM' Investigations and by Other

Prisoner of War Interrogations and
Captured Material, Principally German" (May

1, 1946). Nine volumes.

Lemnitzer's Private Summary:
Long-hidden, handwritten fifty-two-page private

account of the Bay of Pigs affair
by General Lyman L. Lemnitzer (undated). Kept

in Lemnitzer's private papers at
his family home in Pennsylvania.

Page

1 The Munitions Building was
located at the corner of Nineteenth Street and Constitution Avenue in
Washington.

1  Friedman walk to the vault:
Frank B. Rowlett,
The Story of Magic: Memoirs of an American Cryptologic
Pioneer
(Laguna Hills, CA: Aegean Park Press, 1998), p. 34.

2  "Welcome, gentlemen":
ibid., p. 35. 2 Rowlett's clothes: ibid., p. 34.

2 Sinkov and Kullback background:
James Bamford,
The Puzzle Palace: A Report on NSA, America's Most Secret
Agency
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982), p. 30.

2  more than 10,000 messages:
ibid., p. 16.

3  the Chamber's demise: ibid.,
pp. 16—17.

3 given its cautious approval:
Rowlett, op. cit., pp. 37—38. 3 State Department... never to know: ibid.

3  vault twenty-five feet square:
ibid., p. 34.

4  "The NSA Christmas party
was a big secret": NSA, Top Secret/Umbra, Oral history of Robert L.
Prestel (December 21, 1993), p. 14.

4  "For a long time we didn't
tell anybody": Laura Sullivan, "Secret Spy Agency Puts On Human
Face,"
Baltimore Sun
(March 21, 2000).

5  "They picked him up":
ibid.

5 NSA leased the entire building:
ibid.

5 "I do this with some
trepidation": Address by Vice Admiral William O. Stude-man to the
Baltimore/Washington Corridor Chamber (June 29, 1990).

Page

7 
"the
United States will be": Office of Strategic Services, secret memorandum,
William O. Donovan to President Truman, with attached report, "Problems
and Objectives of United States Policy" (May 5, 1945), pp. 1, 2 (HSTL,
Rose Conway File, OSS Memoranda for the President, Box 15).

8  TICOM: Army Security Agency,
Top Secret/Cream report, "European Axis Signal Intelligence in World War
II as Revealed by 'TICOM' Investigations and by Other Prisoner of War
Interrogations and Captured Material, Principally German," (May 1, 1946).
Nine volumes. (Hereafter referred to as TICOM.)

8 Colonel George A. Bicher: TICOM,
vol. 1, p. 2.

8  Marshall message to Eisenhower:
War Department message, Marshall to Eisenhower (August 7, 1944), contained in
TICOM, vol. 8, p. 55.

9  "the plan
contemplated": ibid., p. 3.

9 "a. To learn the extent...
war against Japan": ibid. 10 "was no longer feasible": TICOM,
vol. 8, p. 52. 10 "take over and exploit": TICOM, vol. 1, p. 3.

10 suburban location was chosen:
Gordon Welchman,
The Hut Six Story: Breaking the Enigma Codes
(New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1982), p. 9. 10 "was brilliantly conceived": TICOM, vol.
2, p. 1.

10  "Allied  Cornint
agencies  had  been  exploiting":  NSA,  Robert J.  Hanyok, "Defining
the Limits of Hell: Allied Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust During
the Second World War, 1939-1945" (1999). This paper was presented at the
Cryptologic History Symposium at NSA on October 27, 1999.

11   "One day we got this
frantic call": NSA, Secret/Comint Channels Only, oral history of Paul E.
Neff (January 26, 1983).

12  "Apparently they
had": ibid., p. 45.

12  At thirty-eight: Background
information about Whitaker is drawn from an interview with Dr. Paul K. Whitaker
(January 1999); diary of Paul K. Whitaker, copy in author's collection.

13  Selmer S. Norland: Information
about his background is drawn from Thomas Parrish,
The Ultra Americans: The
U.S. Role in Breaking the Nazi Codes
(Bri-arcliff Manor, NY: Stein &
Day, 1986), p. 102.

13 Arthur Levenson: Background
information comes from ibid., pp. 86—87.

13  British policy had forbidden:
Signal Security Service, secret report by William F. Friedman, "Report on
E Operations of the GC & CS at Bletchley Park" (August 12, 1943), p.
9.

14  "I eventually got my
commission": NSA, Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of Dr. Howard
Campaigne (June 29, 1983), pp. 2—3.

14 Swordfish: NSA, "The
Docent Book" (January 1996). Among the variations of the "Fish"
were machines nicknamed by American codebreakers "Tunny" and
"Sturgeon." The Tunny (better known in English as the tuna) was the
Schlusselzusatz 40 (SZ40). It was manufactured by the German firm Lorenz and
was used by the German army for upper-echelon communications. The Sturgeon,
actually a Siemens T-52, was developed at the request of the German navy, with
the first units manufactured in 1932. The German air force began using it in
1942. Unlike the Enigma, the Sturgeon did not use wired rotors. The rotors have
a series of cogs that open and close on electrical contacts.

Unless otherwise noted, all
details of the hunt for the Fish machine are from Paul K. Whitaker's personal
diary (unpaginated), a copy of which is in the author's possession.

14 "The impressions
were": Whitaker diary.

14  "The roads were
lined": ibid.

15  "How are things down
there?": ibid.

16  "They were working":
ibid.

17  Dustbin: TICOM, Top
Secret/Ultra report, "Narrative and Report of the Proceedings of TICOM
Team 6, 11 April-6 July 1945" (September
5,
1945).

17 Among those clandestinely
brought: ibid. 17 "It is almost certain": TICOM, vol. 3, p. 8.

17  "We found that the
Germans": NSA, Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of Dr. Howard
Campaigne (June 29, 1983), pp. 2-3.

18  "European cryptanalysts
were unable": TICOM, vol. 1, p. 6. Other systems-solved by Germany
included between 10 and 30 percent of intercepted U.S. Army M-209 messages.
Except where keys were captured, it was usually read too late to be of tactical
value, Almost 100 percent of messages sent by the U.S. Army in Slidex, Codex,
bomber code, assault code, aircraft movement code, map coordinate codes, and
cipher device M-94 where employed, were read regularly (TICOM, vol. 1, p. 5).

18 SIGABA: NSA, "The Docent
Book" (January 1996). The Army SIGABA was

designated M134C and the Navy
SIGABA was the CSP 888. 18 It was finally taken out of service: ibid.

18  "practically 100%
readable": TICOM, vol. 1, Appendix: "Results of European Axis
Cryptanalysis as Learned from TICOM Sources" (88 pages, unpaginated).

19  "cryptanalytic attack had
been": ibid. See also Army Security Agency, Top Secret/Ultra report,
"The Achievements of the Signal Security Agency in World War II"
(February 20, 1946), p. 31.

19 more than 1 million decrypted
messages: NSA, Top Secret/Umbra, "On Watch" (September 1986), p. 11.

19 "Overnight, the targets
that occupied": ibid., p. 13.

19 Gone were the army intercept
stations: Prior to the war, intercept stations were located at Fort Hancock,
New Jersey; the Presidio, San Francisco, California; Fort Sam Houston, Texas;
Corozal, Panama Canal Zone; Fort Shafter, Territory of Hawaii; Fort McKinley,
Philippine Islands; and Fort Hunt, Virginia. During the war additional
intercept stations were added at Indian Creek Station, Miami Beach, Florida;
Asmara, Eritrea; Amchitka, Aleutian Islands; Fairbanks, Alaska; New Delhi,
India; Bellmore, New York; Tarzana, California; and Guam (Army Security Agency,
Top Secret/Ultra report, "The Achievements of the Signal Security Agency
in World War II" (February 20, 1946), pp. 11-12).

19  Vint Hill Farms Station: In
1999 the station was taken over by the Federal Aviation Administration as the
new home of a consolidated radar operations center for the Washington-Baltimore
area's four major airports—Dulles, Reagan National, Baltimore-Washington, and
Andrews Air Force Base. The system is known as TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach
Control).

20  At war's end: By V-J Day 7,848
people were working at Arlington Hall (Army Security Agency, "The
Achievements of the Signal Security Agency in World War II" (February 20,
1946), p. 3. (National Archives and Records Administration, RG 457, Box 107,
SRH-349.)

20 "They intercepted printers
at Vint Hill": NSA, Top Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of
Colonel Russell H. Horton (March 24, 1982), p. 64.

20  "For a few months in
early 1942": NSA/CIA, Cecil James Phillips, "What Made Venona
Possible?" in "Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response,
1939-1957" (1996), p. xv.

21  Phillips estimated that
between 1942 and 1948: David Martin, "The Code War,"
Washington
Post Magazine (May
10, 1998), p. 16.

21  Long black limousines: The
description of the UN's founding conference draws on Linda Melvern,
The
Ultimate Crime: Who Betrayed the UN and Why?
(London: Allison & Busby,
1995), p. 23.

22  the French delegation: Details
on breaking French codes and ciphers come from TICOM, vol. 1, Appendix:
"Results of European Axis Cryptanalysis as Learned from TICOM
Sources."

22 "Our inclusion among the
sponsoring": War Department, Top Secret/Ultra report, "Magic"
Diplomatic Summary (May 2, 1945), p. 8.

22 "Pressure of work":
Signal Security Agency, Top Secret report, Rowlett to Commanding Officer, SSA,
"Semimonthly Branch Activity Report, 1—15 June 1945."

23 "Russia's prejudice":
War Department, Top Secret/Ultra report, "Magic"

Diplomatic Summary (April 30,
1945), pp. 7—12. 23 Spanish decrypts: ibid. 23 Czechoslovakian message: ibid.
23 "a situation that compared": NSA, David A. Hatch with Robert Louis
Benson,

"The Korean War: The Sigint
Background" (June 2000), p. 4. 23 "a remarkably complete
picture": ibid. 23 "perhaps the most significant": ibid., p. 5.

23  Black Friday: ibid., p. 4.

24  a gregarious Russian linguist:
Details concerning William Weisband are drawn from NSA/CIA, "Venona:
Soviet Kspionage and the American Response, 1939-1957" (1996), p. xxviii.

24 "three-headed
monster": NSA, Top Secret/Codeword, Oral History of Herbert

J. Conley (March 5, 1984), pp. 58,
59. 24 "He couldn't control": ibid.

24  Korea barely registered:
Unless otherwise noted, details on Sigint in Korea are from NSA, David A. Hatch
with Robert Louis Benson, "The Korean War: The Sigint Background"
(June 2000), p. 4.

25  "AFSA had no Korean
linguists": NSA, Top Secret/Umbra/Handle via Talent and Keyhole Comint
Control Systems Jointly, Dr. Thomas R. Johnson,
American Cryptology During
the Cold War(1995)
p. 36.

25 Buried in stacks of intercepted
Soviet traffic: ibid., pp. 39—+0.

25 Joseph Darrigo, a U.S. Army
captain: ibid., p. 40.

25 "AFSA (along with everyone
else) was looking": ibid., p. 54.

25  arriving ten to twelve hours
after intercept: NSA, Jill Frahm, "So Power Can Be Brought into Play:
Sigint and the Pusan Perimeter" (2000), p. 6; see also NSA, Patrick D.
Weadon, "Sigint and Comsec Help Save the Day at Pusan," pp. 1-2.

26  Father Harold  Henry had spent
a number of years:  NSA,  "Korea,"  pp. 42-43.

26 "When we got into the ...
Perimeter": Donald Knox,
The Korean War: An Oral History
(New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985), p. 77.

26 provided him with such vital
information as the exact locations: NSA, "So Power Can Be Brought into
Play: Sigint and the Pusan Perimeter," p. 10.

26  "ground-return
intercept": NSA, "The Korean War: The Sigint Background," p. 12.

27  "One of our problems in
Korea": NSA, Top Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of Paul
Odonovich (August 5, 1983), p. 33.

27 low-level voice intercept
(LLVI): NSA, "Korea," pp. 47-48.