The Legendary William F. Friedman
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'\ •' THE LEGENDARY WILLIAM F. FRH:DMAN By L~mbros D. C~llimPhos February 1974 "------- @'pp roved for Release bv NSA on 05-12-2014 Pursuant to E .0. 1352\3 REF ID:A4045961 "To my disciple, colles:igue, end friend, LPmbros Demetrios Cl3llim::>hos- who, hr:iving at an early ?ge become one of the gre?t fl1=1utists of the world, deserted the profession of musician, in favor of another in which he is making noteworthy contributions-- From r:illif'm F. Friedm?.n- - who, having ?t 8n early ege aspired to become noted in the field of biology, deserted the profession of geneticist, in favor of ~nother, upon which he hopes he hes left some impression by his contributions. In short: From deserter to deserter, with affectionate greetings! W.F.F. Washington, 21 November 1958" (Facing pege J-) REF ID:A4045961 ~ THE LEGENDARY WILLIAM F. FRIEDMAN By Lambros D. Callimahos Unclassified PROLOGUE When I joined the U.S. Army to enter the cryptologic service of my adopted country on February 11, 1941, William F. Friedman was already e legendRry figure in my eyes. I had read two efffly papers of his, "L'indice de coincidence et ses a-pplications en cryptographie" end "Application des methodes de la statistioue a la cryptogre~hie, when I was living in Feris in 1934, concertizing as a flute soloist throughout Europe while privately pursuing en active hobby of cryptology, which I felt would be my niche when the time CPme for me to enter the army. (Be sides the U.S. Army, I was also liable for service in the Greek, Egy-ptian, and Turkish armies, P.nd barely missed being in one of the letter.) As a member of the original group of 28 students in the Cryptogr8phic School at Fort Monmouth: N. J., I was overjoyed when I found that Mr. Friedmen's texts on Milit,,ry Crypt- analysis were to be our Old and New TestAments combined.l · I did not meet William Friedman until after our school moved in October of 1942 to Vint Hill Farms Station, Warrenton, Va. The previous summer I hi=id been promised e direct commission by the Heedr;uarters staff of Fort Monmouth. At that time I was, as a senior private first cless--I tad the renk that went with the job--head of the language depPrtment and t~ught Italian and cryptanalysis 2nd, since I was presumably indispensable on weekdAys, pulled KP only on SaturdP.ys and Sundays. Tired of waiting, I went to Officer Candidate School and greduated with my class in August 1942. It was at Vint Hill that Mr. Friedman first paid us a visit, and we were all properly impressed at the dApper figure with the Adolph Menjou moustache, the chelracteristic bow tie, end the t~10-tone bleck-and-whi te shoes--the cr:ypto·· logic giant who asked the most seP.rching nuestions end understood our ~nswers even before we had finished our explnnetions. HFiving been 8t Vint Hill for 14 months find, thinking that I might be stuck there for the duretion of the war (I wes Chief Instructor in cryptanalytics, with sever1=Jl hundred students in the school), I seized the opportunity, when Mr. Friedman egain visited us, to ask him to get me out of there. In two weeks I w:-s tr:rnsferred to Arlington !Tull Station where I was to have been assigned to Mr. Friedman for four months to lThe ·way I got into the Cryptographic School was no accident. I paid a courtesy call on my New York City draft board complete with waxed mustache, goatee, big black hat, Chesterfield coat, spats, gloves, and c2ne, like something out of a Du.>r.DS no\ el. When I showed them the list of l~O-some works on cryptol:::gy I had read in preparation for eventual military service, the board sent me to Army Headouerters in Church Street, and they in turn sent me to Governor's Island, where G-2 arranged for what I thought was to be Army service of one year in the Cryptographic School. 1 REF ID:A4045961 ~ write a course in operational cryptan~lysis and then to have been sent to Europe. The Army, though, hP.s e wonderful wpy of working. The officer to whom I was to have reported was on leave; I reported to the wrong officer, was sent to the wrong building, found myself two weeks li:iter enrolled in a Japflnese course, and it was made perfectly clear that my destiny was eventual service in the Far F8st. Mr. FriedmBn discovered my predicement too late to do anything about it, so after a year at Arlington Hall I went to New Delhi as an Assistant Signal Intelligence Officer for the China-Burma-India Theater. When the war was over I was sent as a junior ceptain to Leavenworth (to the Command and General Staff College--not to that other place). When I greduated in February 1946, Mr. Friedman reouested my assignment to ASA, Pnd I was de tailed as his Technic~l Assistant. FRIEDMAN THE M.~N . My respect and l•dmiration for the men for whom I worked increpsed with every contact and discussion. At first, our relationship WAS most formal- "Captpin c." ~nd "Mr. Friedman." Lnter on it becr-ime "CAl" end finally "Lembros," but it wa~: ~lwP,ys 11 Mr. Friedman." It took lvr...Ark Rhoads, his P,dmin istrative assistant F.1nd collengue of long standing, p dozen yenrs to call him "Bill"; and !11.r. Friedm'm wcis "Bill" only to his friend and respected colleague Brigadier John H. Tiltman, to the Chief, ASA, and to a hF1nc~pl of senior mili tary officers. To the rest, including his closest associates of the ep,rly 30's- Solomon Kullb8ck, FrF·nk Rowlett, and Abraham Sinkov--he was always "Mr. Friedrr..en" even when they were not in his presence. I used to spel?k of him affectionately as "Uncle Willie"--when not within earshot; the sobriau~t c~ught on and beceme widesprePd at Arlington Hall, and when he learned of tbe appellation he was amused. But once, at :m Agency p13rty when the two of us we·re by ourselves at the cenape tFible pnd I called him "Uncle Willie," I was made ~ware of my impertinence. One simply did not take liberties with WFF. Mr. Friedman's desk in his priv~te office in He~douarters Building at Arling ton Hall wes about 15 feet from mine in the outer office, but much of our d$3ily contact was in the form of written notes. I would screen incoming technical p13- pers and pass on to bim those meriting his personal attention, with e buck slip. He would buck notes lack and forth to me, sometimes exchanging six or seven notes: Mr. Friedman was fond of written records. Since he did superior work himself, he expected that all those around him would ~lso do the same, without cuestion. Com pliments were hard tc come b;y. Once, when I did something evidently worthy of particular notice, he wrote on a note, "Capt. C.--Good!" I poked my heed into his door and inouired solicitously "Are you ill, Mr. Friedman?" "No, why?", he re plied. I ans-wered "You wrote 'Good!' on your note." He laughed, and from then on he allowed himself an occesional complimentary adjective that greetly added to the psychic income ti;at was alreedy mine in having the privilege of working with him. On another occi:ision when I outlined what I thought was an especially good ide-9, he listened pPtiently and, when I had finished, SAid: "Thet's fine. I h.gve a p"ltent on that." At enother time I received his compliments on an original pro cedure, until I found out a couple of weeks later that he had P.lre2dy written about it and had forgotten ebout it, so I embarrassedly brought it to his atten tion. Homerus nutat. 2 REF ID:A4045961.; As an Army captain, I was very proud to work for l"1r. Friedman, in view of what he had done end was doing for his country. Always a stickler for le mot juste, he abhorred imprecise or inelegant language. Once, when I did not use the term "repetition" when he felt th13t I should have, he soid: "Don't ever use 'repeat' as a noun again~" -- When I found that the dictionary recog nized the use of "repeat" as a noun, I was a bit miffed, but I swallowed my pride and was very careful in the future how I expressed myself to the Great One. On another occasion, when he came across the cover name ICKY in a tech nical report he blew his top, exclaiming that this word made him puke {j_iri/o Mr. Friedman had complete feith in his subordinates--otherwise, he felt, they wouldn't be working for him. He took for gr8nted th~t I knew Pll th~t was necessP.ry to know i::ibout cryptanalysis--a most flPttering compliment, but unre8listic. One d8y ;<'J p~per c:>me through on a most complicnted ~nd Pbstruse phase of a.technicel matter !'bout which I comprehended not even the title. I shrugged my shoulders and bucked the paper to him, feeling that this certainly W!lS one matter with which I should have absolutely nothing to do, especially since three leading technicians of the Agency differed among themselves as to the merits of technical points.