Code Warriors: NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars | 318 ratings

Price: 17.72

Last update: 11-25-2024


About this item

A sweeping, in-depth history of NSA, whose famous "cult of silence" has left the agency shrouded in mystery for decades.

The National Security Agency was born out of the legendary codebreaking programs of World War II that cracked the famed Enigma machine and other German and Japanese codes, thereby turning the tide of Allied victory. In the postwar years, as the United States developed a new enemy in the Soviet Union, our intelligence community found itself targeting not soldiers on the battlefield, but suspected spies, foreign leaders, and even American citizens. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, NSA played a vital, often fraught and controversial role in the major events of the Cold War, from the Korean War to the Cuban Missile Crisis to Vietnam and beyond.

In Code Warriors, Stephen Budiansky - a longtime expert in cryptology - tells the fascinating story of how NSA came to be, from its roots in World War II through the fall of the Berlin Wall. Along the way, he guides us through the fascinating challenges faced by cryptanalysts, and how they broke some of the most complicated codes of the 20th century. With access to new documents, Budiansky shows where the agency succeeded and failed during the Cold War, but his account also offers crucial perspective for assessing NSA today in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations. Budiansky shows how NSA's obsession with recording every bit of data and decoding every signal is far from a new development; throughout its history the depth and breadth of the agency's reach has resulted in both remarkable successes and destructive failures.

Featuring a series of appendixes that explain the technical details of Soviet codes and how they were broken, this is a rich and riveting history of the underbelly of the Cold War, and an essential and timely read for all who seek to understand the origins of the modern NSA.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.


Top reviews from the United States

Walter W. Olson, Ph.D, P.E.
5.0 out of 5 stars Secrets! It is a curse that nations need secrets to achieve their national goals.
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2016
Secrets! It is a curse that nations need secrets to achieve their national goals.

This book explores SIGINT (signal intelligence) in the United States from World War II to the NSA in the Vietnam War... it is limited to what is current state because that information has not been declassified yet.

My mother was a Code Breaker at Arlington Hall during World War II largely because she spoke Slavic languages fluently. It became an obsession with her: she could never let it go after World War II and it greatly influenced my and my siblings childhood. If you know the story of Thimas Nash, you know the story of my mother's life. So I took particular interest in this book because the hype for the book said that it would explore Arlington Hall: it failed in my estimation in this hype BUT it was successful in describing the growth of SIGINT from WWII to the Vietnam War.

Cracking codes is not an easy business as I learned from my mother. Intelligence gathering violates the basic principles of democratic nation's and certainly those of the United States. Yet, without this information, we risk major loss of lives, resources and perhaps the nation itself. As this book more than adequately describes, it is a nasty business. It corrupts the people involved and leads to disputes in what should be collected, how it should be collected, how it should be processed and how the results should be disseminated to people responsible for operations. It invites parochialism and the hiding of failure. Information is power and every bureaucracy wants to have its intelligence. Worst yet, it invites the distribution of intelligence that fits what political leaders want to hear.

And yet, there is hope. There is hope that intelligence can save the nation, that intelligence can prevent the loss of lives and that intelligence can save us.

A good book, very readable and worthwhile to consider for thinking about!
Upstate NY
4.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2017
This is a remarkably accurate history of US signals intelligence. The only flaw was the now-mandatory cheap shot at an agency doing what it is tasked to do by the country's political leadership. Apparently people prefer to think that the US intelligence community runs rogue operations than to face the fact that more often than not they resist pressure from the White House to do things that are illegal. Still, well worth the read even for someone who has been on the inside.
John Matlock
5.0 out of 5 stars Brings a depth of understand that has been lacking
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2017
As he points out the areas in which our Government (NSA, CIA, Navy, Army, FBI) screwed up, it surprises me that the Government has what little respect it has.

Right now the media is full of Government intelligence saying Russia hacked the Democratic Party emails causing Trump to win. Note they are not saying that the information published by Wikileaks is inaccurate, but that the Big Russian Bear did it to interfere with the election. Wikileaks says they didn't get the emails from Russia or any other government agency. -- You are, of course, welcome to believe whomever you wish. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says a 14 year-old could have hacked Podesta's emails -- He used the word password" as his password.

They also have been saying that the Russians attempted to hack into an electrical utility. This is based on some kind of signatures embedded in the hacking software. It now appears that whoever did this hacking used a commercially available software package.

My only real problem lies in the fact that the books stops too early. The ads for it say that the book "offers crucial perspective for assessing NSA today in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations." I suppose that that's true, but it really doesn't say much about Snowden. He's only mentioned in the introduction. Nor, of course, is the aftermath of Snowden's actions discussed. But then again, those aren't all known yet. Neither is the final resolution of the "Russian Hacking" scandal.

I guess that my "crucial perspective" is to believe that those guys are not telling the "truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." The real question is, are they lying or simply incompetent.
enochr
3.0 out of 5 stars Not easy read but interesting.
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2016
Although I loved the information and background, oftentimes it was confusing following timelines. It did bring an interesting juxtaposition to today's events especially when you compare the minor indiscretions that H. Clinton is being raked over the coals for today.
W. J. Magee
4.0 out of 5 stars Spy Listener
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2016
This is an excellent and detailed chronology of communications intelligence gathering from ww2 to current times. However, like many subject focused books it helps if you have a keen interest in the subject. I worked in this area from late 50s to early 60s, so from my perspective it was fascinating and filled a lot of voids.

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