In May 1917 William and Elizebeth Friedman were asked by the U.S. Army to begin training
officers in cryptanalysis and to decrypt intercepted German diplomatic and military
communications. In June 1917 Herbert Yardley convinced the new head of the Army's Military
Intelligence Division to create a code and cipher section for the Army with himself as its
head. These two seminal events were the beginning of modern American cryptology the growth of
which culminated 35 years later with the creation of the National Security Agency. Each running
their own cryptologic agencies in the 1920s the Friedman-Yardley relationship was shattered
after Yardley published a tell-all book about his time in military intelligence. Yet in the end
the work they all started in 1917 led directly to the modern American intelligence community.
As they got older they became increasingly irrelevant in the burgeoning American cryptologic
fraternity. Topics and features: * Examines the lives of three remarkable and pioneering
cryptologists * Offers fascinating insights into spies codes and ciphers rumrunners poker
and military history * Sheds new light on interesting parts of the cryptologists'
careers-especially Elizebeth Friedman whose work during World War II has just begun to be
explored * Recounts several good stories i.e. What if the Friedmans had gone to work for
Herbert Yardley in his new Cipher Bureau in 1919? What if Yardley had moved back to Washington
to work for William Friedman a decade later? This enjoyable book has wide appeal for: general
readers interested in the evolution of American cryptology American historians (particularly
of World War I the inter-war period and World War II signals intelligence) and historians
of-and general readers interested in-American military intelligence. It also can be used as an
auxiliary text or recommended reading in introductory or survey courses in history or on the
related topics.