The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency

551 Pages·2009·2.33 MB·English

by  Matthew M. Aid

The Secret Sentry
THE SECRET SENTRY
The Untold History of the
National Security Agency
MATTHEW M. AID
Copyright © 2009 by Matthew M. Aid
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10010.
Published by Bloomsbury Press, New York
All papers used by Bloomsbury Press are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in
well-managed forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Aid, Matthew M., 1958–
The secret sentry : the untold history of the National Security Agency / Matthew M. Aid.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-1-60819179-6
1. United States. National Security Agency— History. 2. Intelligence service— United States. 3.
Electronic surveillance—United States. 4. United States— History—1945– I. Title. II. Title: Secret
sentry, the untold history of the NSA. III. Title: Untold history of the National Security Agency.
UB256.U6A53 2009
327. 1273—dc22
2008037442
First U.S. Edition 2009
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset by Westchester Book Group Printed in the United States of America by Quebecor World
Fairfield
To Harry, Rita, and Jonathan Aid
My Family, My Best Friends, and My Staunchest Supporters
Gratis eternum
Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100
battles.
Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory.
Know thy enemy but not yourself, wallow in defeat every time.
—SUN TZU
There are no secrets except the secrets that keep themselves.
—GEORG BERNARD SHAW,
BACK TO METHUSELAH
Contents
Prologue
The Origins of the American Cryptologic
Effort Against Russia
1. Roller-Coaster Ride:
The Travails of American Communications
Intelligence: 1945–1950
2. The Storm Breaks:
SIGINT and the Korean War: 1950–1951
3. Fight for Survival:
The Creation of the National Security
Agency
4. The Inventory of Ignorance:
SIGINT During the Eisenhower
Administration: 1953–1961
5. The Crisis Years:
SIGINT and the Kennedy Administration:
1961–1963
6. Errors of Fact and Judgment:
SIGINT and the Gulf of Tonkin Incidents
7. The Wilderness of Pain:
NSA and the Vietnam War: 1964–1969
8. Riding the Whirlwind:
NSA During the Johnson Administration:
1963–1969
9. Tragedy and Triumph:
NSA During the Nixon, Ford, and Carter
Administrations
10. Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano:
NSA During the Reagan and Bush
Administrations
11. Troubles in Paradise:
From Desert Storm to the War on Terrorism
12. Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory:
9/11 and the Invasion of Afghanistan
13. A Mountain out of a Molehill:
NSA and the Iraqi Weapons of Mass
Destruction Scandal
14. The Dark Victory:
NSA and the Invasion of Iraq:
March–April 2003
15. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:
SIGINT and Combating the Insurgencies
in Iraq and Afghanistan
16. Crisis in the Ranks:
The Current Status of the National Security
Agency
Acknowledgments
Notes Glossary
Notes
PROLOGUE
The Origins of the American Cryptologic Effort Against Russia
Another man’s soul is darkness. Does anybody ever really know
anybody else?
—RUSSIAN PROVERB
The consensus of historians (and the overwhelming burden of evidence)
dates the initial stages of the Cold War to well before the end of World
War II. The United States would emerge from the war as a superpower with
arguably the world’s strongest armed forces, sole possession of the atomic
bomb, a vastly expanded industrial base, and an infrastructure untouched by
the ravages of war. But on the negative side, the country had at best a
rocky relationship with one of its war time allies, the Soviet Union. By the
time Nazi Germany and Japan had surrendered, Russia was on a collision
course with both the United States and Britain. It was not long before the
Soviet Union was regarded as “the main enemy” by the Western nations.
Since it remained a rigidly closed society under Joseph Stalin’s regime, the
lack of transparency was a major factor driving the Cold War. Because the
United States had only a very limited idea of what was going on in the
Soviet Union, its satellite countries in Eastern Eu rope, and communist
China, the emerging confrontation became all the more dangerous. But one
of the most secret resources that had greatly contributed to the victory of
the Allied Powers—the United States and Britain’s ability to intercept and
read the communications of our former enemies Germany, Japan, and Italy,
both in the clear and encoded—would be quickly redirected to the task of
gathering communications intelligence about the new Sino-Soviet threat.
It is difficult to imagine, many decades later, just how mortal that threat
was perceived to be, particularly after the Soviet Union detonated its first
atomic device in the summer of 1949. The prospect of a “nuclear Pearl
Harbor” meant that the United States would rely heavily on an increasingly
large and expensive communications intelligence effort.
Carter Clarke Declares War on Russia