K9APE’s Book Club

K9APE’s Book Club

The American Black Chamber by Harold O. Yardley

War between Iraq and the United States will pit us against a technologically inept opponent in combat where the outcome will be determined by superiority in military technology and military intelligence. Last month, I touched on one aspect of military technology during World War II; namely, use of blood technology as a military resource. Now, I want to look back at our first war where radio dictated the outcome – World War I.

Germany declared war against Great Britain and France on midnight, 04 AUG 1914. Before dawn broke on the 5^th, the British cable ship Telconia severed all five German trans-Atlantic telegraph cables that started near Emden on the German coast and ran through the English Channel to the world beyond. That single act forced the Germans to rely on the new technology of wireless for their communications – especially to the Western Hemisphere.

For the British, the consequences were both good and bad news. The good news was that the Admiralty could receive German radio traffic. The bad news was that the Admiralty had only one radio antenna and no means for decrypting enciphered traffic. But more good news – British Amateur Radio operators, the Post Office and the Marconi Company provided copies of messages, a remarkable officer – Captain William Reginald (“Blinker”) Hall – became Director of the Intelligence Division and three German code books came into Hall’s possession.

There is much more to tell of these events; however, the most important was the so-called Zimmermann Telegram sent from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to Ambassador Count Johann von Bernstorff in Washington during January 1917. The essence of Zimmerman’s telegram was an entreaty to be sent by Bernstorff to Mexico’s President urging him to initiate a war against the United States to recover Texas, New Mexico and Arizona and to enlist the Japanese in their efforts. Zimmermann’s objective was to keep America out of its war with the Allies. See Barbara Tuchman’s The Zimmermann Telegram, ©1958 for details.

Secrecy was paramount for the Germans because they knew that disclosure of the telegram’s message to Americans would immediately trigger a U.S. declaration of war (“They got that right.”). Germany could not entrust transmission of the Zimmerman Telegram to wireless, so it asked both the Swedes and, incredibly, the Americans to allow use of their diplomatic cables to send their encrypted message to Bernstorff. Both countries disregarded international law and agreed. What the Germans did not know was that the Swedish cable incorporated a relay in Wales, where the British happened to be eavesdropping. Hall had a partially decrypted transcript within a few days and a full text shortly thereafter. His problem then became one of how to disclose the telegram to President Woodrow Wilson and to publicize it without disclosing British tactics and methods. For a short and tantalizing description of how Hall succeeded, see James Gannon’s Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies, ©2001.

Meanwhile on our side of the Atlantic, President Wilson was actively soliciting a role as mediator; but, none of the parties were interested in a settlement. Wilson took no steps to prepare the United States for war – especially a war where radio and decryption technology would be important. Enter Harold. O. Yardley.

Yardley was a 23-year old of no particular experience (but lots of chutzpah [audacity]) when the State Department hired him as a code clerk in 1912. With time on his hands and little else to occupy his mind, Yardley wondered if he could decrypt telegrams arriving from Europe. Sure enough, he could – even traffic enciphered with the State Department’s most secure keys.

When Wilson finally declared war against Germany in 1917, Yardley convinced the War Department to establish a cryptologic service, which it did and called the Military Intelligence Division, MI-8. Yardley was commissioned as a lieutenant and placed at its head.

MI-8 under Yardley proceeded to produce encryption and enciphering systems for the military, train soldiers and sailors in the proper use of codes, decode enemy traffic, detect messages written in disappearing ink and more. Information gleaned from enemy traffic not only produced results on the battlefield; but, helped to capture spies and saboteurs at home.

With World War I at an end, MI-8’s functions now were transferred back to the State Department and the focus was now aimed at foreign diplomatic traffic. It became the American Black Chamber and was now located in New York for two reasons. The first was plausible deniability if its work became known. The second was easy access to Western Union and Postal Telegraph cable offices.

Yardley and others in the Black Chamber received commendations for their work. Suddenly in 1929 after the inauguration of President Herbert Hoover (R), Yardley and the Black Chamber staff were fired. Hoover’s new Secretary of State Henry L. Stimpson was shocked – I say shocked – to learn that the State Department employed eavesdroppers! Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail, he lectured. As proof that such naiveté is neither partisan nor a bar to further advancement, Stimpson later became F.D.R.’s (D) Secretary of War; but, that is another story.

Meanwhile Yardley was without employment and his résumé did not attract any commercial offers. So he embarked on two projects.

The first of Yardley’s projects was to bet the Japanese Ambassador that he could break Japanese traffic for $8,000. Confident that their language and codes were safe from American eyes and ears, the Japanese took the bet – and lost. Their surprise led to the Japanese development of a new encipherment system that would later be cracked during World War II (with Stimpson’s approval and funding) by William Friedman’s Purple Machine. See David Kahn’s The Code-Breakers, ©1967.

The second of Yardley’s projects was to write The American Black Chamber, ©1931, which chronologizes his adventures and achievements. The original book is long out of print; but is available from the North Suburban Library System or as a reprint from Borders. It’s a fascinating –and self-laudatory- read that I recommend.

Also recommended is

The Reader of Other Gentlemen’s Mail

Herbert O. Yardley and the Birth of American Code Breaking

David Kahn

ISBN 0-300-09846-4