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Books and Things

This link will be used to post the title of books, articles and references to material that might be of interest to those that like to read about NSA, its history and cryptology in general. If you come across such material and you think others might be interested, send the information to ncmfweb@aol.com and it will be added to this page

Special Note: The items listed on this page are provided for the information of visitors to the web site – the NCMF is not endorsing or indicating support for any organizations or individuals that are identified or promoting the purchase of anything listed here.

John Nash letters Available (posted 1/29/12)

Russell Crowe portrayed John Nash, the mathematical genius, in the movie "A Beautiful Mind". The newest NCM exhibit titled "An Inquisitive Mind: John Nash Letters," features copies of correspondence between Dr. Nash and NSA from the 1950s when he was developing his ideas on an encryption-decryption machine. Complete copies of Nash's letters are available for review in the museum's library and on the museum's web page .

Union Code Books Surface (posted 1/26/12)

The Huntigton Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens recently acquired at a private sale a long-unknown 150-year-old trove of handwritten ledgers and calfskin-covered code books, which give a potentially revelatory glimpse into both the dawn of electronic battlefield communications and the day-to-day exchanges between Abraham Lincoln and his generals as they fought the Civil War.

The Tale of Two Airplanes, Rivet Ball and Rivet Amber (posted 1/25/12)

The Tale of Two Airplanes, by Kingdon R. "King" Hawes, Lt. Col., USAF (Ret), is a great read with lots of fantastic pictures about the evolution of Rivet Ball and Rivet Amber, life for crew members on Shemya, and their missions out of Eielson AFB, Shemya, Alaska during the period 1966-1969.

Dorabella Cipher Solved by Tim Roberts (posted 1/25/12)

Tim Roberts has offered a viable solution to the Dorabella Cipher, an encrypted message sent by the celebrated English composer Edward Elgar to a young lady companion in 1897. Tim is on the Faculty of Arts, Business, Informatics and Education at CQ University Australia.  The Dorabella cipher is listed on the site created by Elonka Dunin which provides an unofficial list of well-known unsolved codes and ciphers. Tim's solution can be found by clicking on this link to a PDF document.

William Penn Teacher (York, Pa) shares secret of code breaking (posted 1/16/12)

William Penn Senior High School in York, Pa offers a cryptology course.  As part of the course the students visit the NCM.

Movie, The Red Machine (posted 1/3/12)

There is a new motion picture in which a number of individuals from the American Cryptogram Association are involved.  A principal character portrayed in the film is NSA honoree Ms. Agnes Driscoll.

Early Use of One-Time Pad Technique Discovered (posted 11/24/11)

In an article by John Markof on July 25, 2011, he discusses a finding by Steven Bellovin in the Library of Congress of a codebook that describes a technique called the one time pad.  The codebook was published fully 35 years before its supposed invention during World War I by Gilbert Vernan. 

Nick Pelling's Cipher Mysteries (posted 11/14/11)

A blog devoted to real unsolved historical code/cipher mysteries, as well as to exploring how those objects get portrayed in books, films, TV, radio, music, opera, sculpture, design, metalworking, eBay scams, etc. Find the latest on unsolved codes and ciphers such as the Voynich Manuscript, the Kryptos sculpture at CIA and many others. You can subscribe for free and receive daily alerts/updates.

Pentagon Display includes Newspaper headline on USS Liberty attack (posted 11/11/11)

A Pentagon display honoring the sacrifices of civilian employees includes a newspaper headline referring to the 1967 Israeli attack on a USS Liberty as an “error,” though the U.S. never officially accepted the Israeli claim it was a mistake. (by Bryant Jordan)

Researchers decode the Copiale cipher, working on the Voynich manuscript (posted 10/31/11)


A team of researchers made headlines for decoding a secret society's 18th century manuscript called the Copiale cipher. The Copiale Cypher - a mysterious cryptogram bound in gold and green brocade paper -- is a 250-year-old coded document that when decrypted uncovered the inner workings of an 18th-century secret society.The team of researchers is working to reveal the secret behind an even more mysterious undecrypted document, the Voynich Manuscript.   Found in a chest of books outside Rome by a dealer in antique books, the Voynich Manuscript has remained one of history’s biggest mysteries: Its aging parchment is coated in alien characters and has for centuries mystified scientists.

Joe Rochefort's War by Elliot Carlson (posted 10/20/11)

Book cover photo by Naval Institute Press

The Odyssey of the Codebreaker who outwitted Yamamoto at Midway is reviewed by Ronald Russel, Editor and Webmaster of the Midway Round Table with comments by CAPT Jim Fanell and RADM Donald "Mac" Showers. You can order the book from the Naval Institute Press.   

Chatham station played pivotal WWII role:  Secret listening post collected U-boat messages to be decoded (posted 9/18/11)

"During World War II, as London burned and German submarines circled like sharks off the Atlantic Coast, the US Navy plotted a secret attack against the Nazis.

In a nondescript red-brick building in this sleepy Cape Cod town, the Navy converted a wireless radio receiving station into an intelligence hub that intercepted coded messages from German submarines and transmitted them to Washington, D.C., to be analyzed. The initiative, which ran from 1942 until the end of the war, employed nearly 600 sailors. But what went on inside the station was so secret that the naval archives has almost no information on it, and many longtime Chatham residents are just hearing about it now."  Read the complete article by Laura Nelson, Globe Correspondent.

Sensemaking: A Structure for an Intelligence Revolution by David Moore (posted 6/14/11)


Sensemaking is the inaugural book in a new NDIC Press series titled, The A. Denis Clift Series on the Intelligence Profession. The Clift Series will present original research on intelligence analysis and the teaching of intelligence. In 2009, A. Denis Clift concluded a 50-year career with the federal government. Clift was president of the National Defense Intelligence College from 1994 to 2009 and was instrumental in creating the Center for Strategic Intelligence Research, which houses the NDIC Press.
Sensemaking disaggregates, synthesizes, interprets, and communicates multiple perspectives of events, always entertaining new hypotheses, and all against the recognition that dramatic failure (or success) might occur at any moment. This bold, new proposal to make sensemaking a cornerstone for the improvement of Community intelligence practice makes an extraordinary contribution to the literature of intelligence.
Everyone may download a free electronic copy of this book from the NDIC website by going to http://www.ndic.edu/press/pdf/PCN23353.pdf.  U.S. government employees may request a complimentary copy of this book by email at press@ndic.edu.  The general public may purchase a copy from the Government Printing Office (GPO) at http://bookstore.gpo.gov/actions/GetPublication.do?stocknumber=008-000-01041-2

The Future of Things "Cyber" by Gen. Michael Hayden (posted 5/4/11)

An article written by General Michael Hayden, past Director of NSA and CIA and current member of the NCMF Board of Directors on The Future of Things "Cyber" is featured in the Spring 2011 edition of Strategic Studies Quarterly.

DES Panel discussion at the RSA (posted 3/24/11)

When you have 44:49 minutes to spare, some of you might enjoy this video of a DES Panel discussion at the RSA. NSAs Dickie George, Whitfield Diffie, Martin Helman, Ronald Rivest, and Adi Shamir were on the panel

Lloyd Oliver, One Of The Last Early Navajo Code Talkers, Dies (posted 3/24/11)

Lloyd Oliver, a resident of Glendale, Arizona was the second-to-last remaining Navajo Code Talker of the original group that designed an unbreakable oral code using their native tongue to confuse the Japanese during World War II. The last survivor, Chester Nez, lives in New Mexico.

Alan Turing and the birth of modern computing (posted 2/21/11)

Article on Alan Turing and his role in developing Colossus, the first practical electronic digital information processing machine in the world.

BBC News Magazine article titled The Piece of Paper that fooled Hitler (posted 1/28/11)

The article starts "It was an audacious double-cross that fooled the Nazis and shortened World War II. Now a document, here published for the first time, reveals the crucial role played by Britain's code-breaking experts in the 1944 invasion of France."

Dave Gaddy and the Civil War encrypted message (posted 12/29/10)

Read all about the decryption of the encrypted message in a sealed vial by visiting the following sites:

Museum of the Confederacy

Article in Britains Daily Mail -

Audio interview with museums's collections manager, Catherine Wright -

Navajo Code Talkers

Article in USA Today on November 11 about the Navajo Code Talkers efforts to build a museum and veterans center on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. 

Last WWII American Indian Code Talker from North Dakota Dies - posted 6/30/10


The last of the American Indian code talkers of South Dakota who served
during World War II has been laid to rest.

Clarence Wolf Guts of Wanblee was buried Tuesday in Black Hills National
Cemetery near Sturgis. The 86-year-old died June 16 at the South Dakota
Veterans Home in Hot Springs.

Wolf Guts was one of 11 Lakota, Nakota and Dakota code talkers from
South Dakota. During the war, they transmitted messages from an Army
general to his chief of staff in the field using their native language,
which the Germans and the Japanese could not translate.

For additional information, including a photo of Mr. Guts, see the article in The Moderate Voice.

Arlington (VA) woman helped break coded German messages, including those about D-Day

As one of the first women admitted into the Navy in 1942, known as WAVES, Jimmie Lee Long worked as a code-breaker in a department that eventually became the National Security Agency. Hundreds of women served with her, their efforts classified and unsung for years.  Read the article in the Star-Telegram.

Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers

The site created by Elonka Dunin provides an unofficial list of well-known unsolved codes and ciphers. A couple of the better-known unsolved ancient historical scripts are also thrown in, since they tend to come up during any discussion of unsolved codes. There has also been an attempt to sort this list by "fame", as defined by a loose formula involving the number of times that a particular cipher has been written about, and/or how many hits it pulls up on a moderately-sorted web search.

Chaocipher Clearing House


The site hosted by Moshe Rubin is a clearing house for general information about Chaocipher. It presents fact, fiction and folklore about John Byrne's legendary invention.

Stories From the Black Chamber, 1935 NBC Radio Show

The show was loosely based on Herbert Osborn Yardley's book The American Black Chamber and it appears that Yardley and Tom Curtan may have been advisors to the show. The Black Chamber ran for 13 episodes before it was cancelled. One or more of the episodes were titled "Secret Ink."

The Secret Sentry by Matthew Aid

Barnes and Noble Review

“Matthew Aid is an indefatigable researcher, poring over documents in government and private archives and conducting interviews with former officials of the National Security Agency.  Aid also delivers excellent accounts of key battles and the role of SIGINT in supporting military maneuvers that were decisive in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the two engagements with Iraq.  By the end of this work, the reader will have a much clearer idea of what the NSA does and how it accomplishes its mission, as well as insights about why the NSA needs to restructure itself so that in the future it will be able to accomplish more and do so with less resources.”

There is a lot on Matthew Aid on the internet.  Google his name and you will find a wealth of information not only about The Secret Sentry but his other writings.


9800 Savage Road by M.E. Harrigan  

"{In this} taut, timely thriller 9800 Savage Road,, Harrigan has done what multiple Directors of NSA have been unable to do:  put a human face on one of America's most secretive and most valuable intelligence organizations.  M. E. Harrigan dishes up suspense, espionage and patriotism all in one serving."

  -- Gen. Michael V. Hayden, U.S Air Force (ret), Director of NSA (1999-2005)  

Library of Congress Digitization Effort

Nearly 60,000 books prized by historians, writers and genealogists, many too old and fragile to be safely handled, have been digitally scanned as part of the first-ever mass book- digitization project of the U.S. Library of Congress (LOC), the world's largest library. Anyone who wants to learn about the early history of the United States, or track the history of their own families, can read and download these books for free.

The digitized books can be accessed through the Library's catalog Web site and the Internet Archive (IA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free online digital library.

The Library of Congress has digitized many of its other collections - more than 7 million photographs, maps, audio and video recordings, newspapers, letters and diaries can be found at the Library's Digital Collections site.

More information is available from a Library of Congress video