Origins of American Spying: Cipher Bureau, Forerunner of NSA, Created During World War I
Less than a month after Congress declared war to take the U.S. into the continuing World War I in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson’s administration created the Cipher Bureau, the forerunner of today’s National Security Agency (N.S.A.). Thus, by an executive action, the United States government began a long history of spying on foreign governments (and some Americans) by a super-secret agency. Congress did not authorize the creation of the new Cipher Bureau.
After the war ended on November 11, 1918, the Cryptographic Section of Military Intelligence, a part of the War Department, moved to New York City on November 20, 1919 and became the Code Compilation Company (a name that implied it was a private corporation) under the direction of Herbert O. Yardley, America’s first great spymaster.
The Code Compilation Company was soon disbanded and replaced by the Cipher Bureau (the old World War I name), which was frequently referred to as The Black Chamber, under the direction of Yardley.
In 1929 Secretary of State disbanded the Black Chamber, famously saying that the U.S. should not spy on foreign governments because “Gentlemen to not read each other’s mail.” Between the abolition of the Black Chamber in 1929 and the beginning of World War II in Europe in 1939 the U.S. had no agency devoted to spying (although some spying activities did occur).
When the U.S. entered World War II, the spying activities were revived under the Signals Intelligence Section, and after the war as the Army Signals Agency (ASA) and then the Armed Forces Signals Agency (AFSA). Meanwhile, during the war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 13, 1942 secretly created the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), headed by William J. Donovan, and the forerunner of today’s CIA.
On November 4, 1952, President Harry Truman secretly created the National Security Agency (NSA).
Read a timeline on the history of American spying, from the Cipher Bureau (1917) to the NSA (1952) here
Learn more about the NSA: James Bamford, The Puzzle Palace (2009)
Visit the NSA website here