Rose Mary Sheldon

1 The Friedman Collection: An Analytical Guide Rose Mary Sheldon 2 In Memoriam David Atlee Phillips ―It‘s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.‖ 3 Preface and Grateful Acknowledgements No project of this size could be attempted or completed without the help of many other people. First and foremost I must thank Brian Shaw, President of the George C. Marshall Foundation and Paul B. Barron, Director of the Library and Archives for their permission to publish the collection. The staff of the Library, both past and present, was exceedingly helpful in getting the materials to me, especially JoAnn Hartog and Anne Wells, who arranged to have items delivered to the reading room before the Friedman Room itself was open to researchers. Peggy Dillard, now Director of the Woodrow Wilson Library in Staunton, Virginia, granted me unfettered access to the Friedman Collection and facilitated this publication in many ways. I thank my secretary Deneise Shafer for helping with the data input stage and helping to prepare the manuscript. Judy Rogers edited the final manuscript and the accuracy of the text is due entirely to her. Paul B. Barron, in particular, has understood the importance of getting this guide online and out to the interested public. A printed manuscript would not only have been too long to publish, but also too cumbersome to use, not to mention the time it would have taken to index the work. Now, researchers can simply scan the complete catalogue for topics of interest. We plan to update the work if corrections need to be made or if missing items are found. Readers who may have information on the missing items or who may wish to donate copies of the missing items are welcome to contact the Marshall Library The Friedman Collection would not be nearly as complete if it were not for the work of Megan Newman, the Inter-Library Loan officer at VMI. She provided us with duplicate copies of many articles that had disappeared from the collection and have now been replaced. She verified the bibliographical information on a good many more entries. The Staff of the Preston Library at the Virginia Military Institute has always been supportive of my projects. 4 William F. Friedman: A Man and His Collection William F. Friedman has always been famous among cryptographers. Since the publication of Ronald W. Clark‘s The Man Who Broke Purple: The Life of Colonel William F. Friedman, (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977), however, he has become even better known to the general public. For anyone left not knowing about his work, Friedman was the U.S. Army cryptographer who ran the research division of the Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1930s, and parts of its follow-on services into the 1950s. In the late 1930s, subordinates of his led by Frank Rowlett broke Japan's PURPLE cipher, thus disclosing Japanese diplomatic secrets beginning before World War II. William F. Friedman was married to Elizebeth Smith Friedman a cryptanalyst and author, and a pioneer in U.S. cryptography. Too often referred to only as William Friedman‘s wife, she is credited with numerous contributions to cryptology, and she enjoyed many successes in her own right. It was Elizebeth who first introduced her husband to the field. Together, these superbly talented people collected a library of books on cryptography and actual cryptographic machines that included everything from a Captain Midnight decoder ring to an actual Enigma machine. As they served the military, worked for various departments of the government, and raised a family they continued to add to the collection until William Friedman‘s death in 1969. Mrs. Friedman sent the collection to the Marshall Library in 1970 consisting of 74 boxes, 3 items (desk, file cabinet, card file), author file by author and decimal number, contracts, and donation papers. WFF (as he will be referred to hereafter) was a collector of information not a collector of rare books. He was happy to have Xerox copies of originals. Unlike Charles Jastrow Mendelsohn, who built the largest collection of antiquarian books on cryptology in the world, the Friedmans 5 did not have that kind of expendable cash for collecting purposes. WFF was interested in the content of the book and its importance in the history of cryptology. The Mendelsohn Collection is now housed in the Rare Books and Manuscript Department of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library of the University of Pennsylvania. Fortunately for the Marshall Library, WFF became Mendelsohn‘s literary executor and many of the items that are now in the FC are copies of Mendelsohn‘s originals. WFF‘s library helped him to write the many public and classified lectures he gave over the years. His knowledge of the history of cryptology was so immense and his collection so replete with materials, that when the NSA commissioned him to write the history of cryptology in six lectures, he found it immensely difficult. The scope of the lectures he planned did not include World War II, which he wanted to leave for a new contract. M The first thing one notices about the Friedman Collection (hereafter referred to as the FC), is that there are some items missing. This had nothing to do with the efficiency of the Friedmans or the Marshall Library. Because of a little known statute passed in 1957, some of the material was reclassified by NSA and removed. When the―Restricted‖ classification used during World War II had been lifted by Executive Order No. 10503, effective 15 December 1953, it meant many of the items in the FC could be made public. However, five years later, DOD Directive 5200.1, dated 8 July 1957, made all material related to cryptologic systems previously classified Restricted upgraded to Confidential. At first WFF did not even know about the DOD directive until told by NSA. WFF wrote in a document dated October 22, 1969: ―What to do about those early writings of mine which are still held in the vaults of the NSA and copies of which I was not permitted to retain? I have practically given up hope of being able, at long last, to get those things released so that they might be integrated with the things included in my gift to 6 the Marshall Library.‖ All of the old Signal Corps Bulletins were affected and WFF was unable to republish some of his earlier articles on topics such as the Zimmermannn Telegram. The law also applied to his Elements of Cryptanalysis and his technical brochures. There is an NSA transmittal form for the classified documents taken from his house on June 26, 1959. They included: 1. An envelope with his lecture cards. 2. COMINT hard facts on the Cold War 3. Machine identification of words 4. Envelope of misc. memos, regulations, etc. 5. First three lectures of his contract 6. Marine Corps lecture series. Draft and final copies 7. Lectures given at SCAMP 1958. 6 folders and cards. 8. The Zimmermannn Telegram lecture 9. One folder marked NSA Consultant 10. Folder of receipts 11. One folder marked NSA Scientific Advisory Board. WFF also sent back the Principles of the Solution of Military Field Codes used by the German Army in 1917. German Military Ciphers from February to November 1918, Studies in German Diplomatic Codes employed during the World War. American Army Field Codes in the AEF Forces during the First World War, Field Codes Used by the German Army during the World War and General Solution for the ADFGVX Cipher System, Statistical Methods of Cryptanalysis, Statistics for Cryptology, The Zimmermannn Telegram of January 16, 1917 and 7 its cryptographic background, Military Cryptanalysis pts 1-4. All of these had previously been in WFF‘s collection. These documents have now been returned to the FC by NSA. WFF was not a great fan of the classification system used by the U.S. Government. In Item 1102, for example, he cites on article on cryptography in the American Civil War that was marked ―Unclassified‖ and yet an article on cryptography in Greek and Roman times is labeled ―restricted‖! Why the NSA would classify codes from WWI was incomprehensible to him. WFF himself wrote in Item 1405.1 that ―The days when hand ciphers were all that were available are gone.‖ Automation in cryptography had already been used for over a dozen years when he wrote those words. ―Even the smallest nations,‖ he said, ―don‘t care a fig about them.‖ Yet the NSA hung onto all of the material. It seemed bizarre that NSA took copies of certain books from the FC and yet they remained available in the Mendelsohn Collection and from the Library of Congress. In a letter of September 10, 1991, Glenn S. Cook, Archivist Librarian at the Marshall Library sent Ms. Jean Schable of the National Archives Declassification Bureau, 34 folders of material in three boxes marked ―Classified.‖ Cook wrote: ―This is all of the classified material that had been held in security . at the Marshall Library. Much of the material consisted of microfilm reels. Of those items marked ―From the Friedman Collection‖ 34 are letters between Lester Bensinger and WFF (1942). There are also numerous letters between WFF and Boris Hagelin (1945), letters between Hedden and WFF and vice versa. Letters between Yves Gylden and WFF (1938, 1945), letters between General Canine and WFF, and Qvarnstrom. There is an oral history interview with Wm. G. Foster (August 5, 1964); A memo from Ch. Morrissey to Ned Nordness, Letters to General Canine from Penny, and audio cassette interview with Mrs. Friedman (80 page transcript), and a Xeroxed memo from W.B.

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