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

A sweeping history of the NSA and its codebreaking from its roots in World War II through the end of the Cold War.

The National Security Agency grew out of the legendary codebreaking programs of World War II that turned the tide of Allied victory by cracking the famed Enigma machine and other seemingly impenetrable German and Japanese codes. But things became murky in the postwar years, when our intelligence community found itself targeting not battlefield enemies, but suspected spies, foreign leaders, and even American citizens. Now Stephen Budiansky--a longtime expert in cryptology--tells the fascinating story of how the NSA came to be, and of its central, 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. He also guides us through the fascinating challenges faced by cryptanalysts, and how they broke some of the most complicated codes of the twentieth century. A riveting, essential history of the underbelly of the Cold War.

STEPHEN BUDIANSKY was the national security correspondent and foreign editor ofU.S. News & World Report; Washington editor of Nature; and editor ofWorld War II magazine. He is the author of six books of military and intelligence history, includingBlackett's War, a Washington Post Notable Book. He has served as a Congressional Fellow, frequently lectures on intelligence and military history, and his articles have appeared inThe New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal,The Atlantic, The Economist, and others. He is a member of the editorial board ofCryptologia, the leading academic journal of codes, codebreaking, and cryptologic history.