National Security Agency: Difference between revisions

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The creation of NSA was authorized in a letter written by President [[Harry Truman|Harry S. Truman]] in June 1952. The agency was formally established through a revision of National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9 on October 24, 1952, and officially came into existence on November 4, 1952. President Truman's letter was itself classified and remained unknown to the public for more than a generation.

Before the NSA proper was The Black Chamber, so called in part because of [[The Black Chamber|the book about it]]. It was established in [[World War One]] and had a cover as a civilian coding agency. During the 20's funding was pulled because the secretary of state considered decryption to be unfair. Denied funding, the head of it wrote a book about it and tried to keep it open.

Before the NSA proper was The Black Chamber, so called in part because of [[The American Black Chamber|the book about it]]. It was established in [[World War One]] and had a cover as a civilian coding agency. During the 20's funding was pulled because the secretary of state considered decryption to be unfair. Denied funding, the head of it wrote a book about it and tried to keep it open.

For a long period of time, the U.S. government denied the existence of the NSA, thus the "No Such Agency" moniker.<ref> The NSA was listed in the 1957 and subsequent editions of the U.S. Government Manual, which was available in most public libraries</ref>

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** The agency also appears or is referenced in several [[Jack Ryan]] novels.

* David Suarez's novel, ''[[Daemon]]'', features the NSA heavily given that the plot of the book involves tracking down a network of rogue computer programs. They are positions as being the most tech savy of the three letter agencies - Agent Natalie Philips of the NSA is the lead on the case and she is one of the book's protagonists.

* ''[[The Black Chamber]]'' ~~was~~ ~~the~~ book about the precursor organization ~~existing~~ before [[World War Two]].

* ''[[The American Black Chamber]]'' IS a 1931 book by Herbert O. Yardley about the Cipher Bureaus, the NSA's precursor organization before [[World War Two]].

* One of the former special forces operatives hired by Mike Harmon (no, not [[JAG|that one]]) to serve as the head of intelligence for the Keldara, in the ''[[Paladin of Shadows (Literature)|Paladin of Shadows]]'' series, is mentioned to have previously worked for the NSA.