W.F. Friedman - A reputation revisited?...

[Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>]

Hi,

Thought I would pass an interesting quote along regarding Friedman. I think
it may have some interest considering the holding of Friedman by some
cpunks...

Combined Fleet Decoded: The secret history of American intelligence and the
                        Japanese navy in WWII
John Prados
ISBN 0-679-43701-0


pp. 164

"This is not to say the solution occurred in a vacuum, however. It was
OP-20-G that had solved Red, predecessor to the new diplomatic system,
and Commander Safford recognized that his organization needed outside help
on Purple. He went to his Army counterpart, The Signal Intelligence Service
(SIS), which formed part of the Signal Corps: there, senior cryptanalyst
William F. Friedman, was an expert on machine based encipherment systems.
Under Friedman, chief of the team attacking the B Machine would be Frank B.
Rowlett. Other SIS cryptanalysts, an electronics engineer, accounting
machine experts, and Japanese linguist formed the rest of the group.
Friedman, too often given credit as the man who "broke" Purple, made only
sporadic contributions amid other duties. His main role came in selecting
members of Rowlett's team, with an assist on diagnosis and analysis of the
sytsem. Robert O. Ferner was Rowlett's second, with cryptanalysts Genevieve
Grotjan, Albert W. Small, and Samuel S. Snyder plus crytographic specialists
Glenn S. Landig, Kenneth D. Miller, and Cyrus C. Sturgis Jr. The top
Japanese linguist was John B. Hurt, a Virginian like Rowlett himself."


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