A Life in Code by G. Stuart Smith

Author:G. Stuart Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2017-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

A declassified document in the British Archives demonstrates that Elizebeth Friedman thought her Coast Guard Unit could be doing more to help the war effort. She believed that the work decoding German agent messages in South America was “dying on them” (National Archives of the U.K.).

Major Stevens also sought advice from an unspecified superior, “to know whether you would consider it a good thing for one of them to pay a visit to B.P [Bletchley Park] apropos. For this one would like to see Mrs. Friedman go, but probably at this end it would be considered more suitable to send Lieutenant-Commander Jones, the official head of the section.”88

Unit 387’s mission apparently became an ongoing issue between Jones and his subordinate. Even though she no longer commanded the section, Elizebeth had strong feelings about the direction it was taking. “Mrs. Friedman was not that impressed with the importance of the clandestine problem or at least the nature of the intelligence material,” remarked the 1976 NSA interview summary. “She believed that the C/A [cryptanalysis] and cryptographic talents of the unit could have been better used on more important projects. She believed the problem was worked to the point of overkill.” Then the interview summary hit the key point: “She believes that Commander Jones had too narrow a view of USCG Comint operations and that his outlook was influenced by excessive concern as to what was best for him professionally. She and Jones frequently debated the proper mission of the unit.”89

Jones dismissed Elizebeth’s opinion about the importance of breaking clandestine traffic as he spelled out his view of the Coast Guard’s mission: “It is the opinion of the writer that clandestine traffic should be ranked as of equal importance with diplomatic traffic, which it in many cases resembles and in some instances seems to supplant.” Jones cited instances of cracking clandestine codes that allowed the Allies to determine what information the enemy lacked, which was highly useful to war planners. “It is believed therefore that the reading of this traffic is of substantial importance to our national interests. If a large part of it is of no direct and immediate interest to the Navy and useful from the standpoint of Naval operations, it is none the less of importance to our government and should be processed.”90

Jones apparently won the argument since the Coast Guard continued working on clandestine codes until the end of the war.

Early in 1943 the Coast Guard was transferred to a new facility and Unit 387 received a new name. Because of the rapid expansion of personnel, the space problem at the Navy Department had become “acute.” The Navy decided to move OP-20-G to the Mount Vernon Seminary in northwest Washington at the corner of Massachusetts and Nebraska Avenues.91 Located in one of the District of Columbia’s most attractive areas and an architecturally restricted neighborhood, the city’s planning commission asked the Navy to explain the seizure of the school. The Navy responded that it was vital to the war effort

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