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The Puzzle Palace: Inside the National Security Agency, America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization Paperback – September 29, 1983
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- Print length656 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication dateSeptember 29, 1983
- Dimensions5.05 x 1.5 x 7.75 inches
- ISBN-100140067485
- ISBN-13978-0140067484
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Being a super-secret spy agency and all, it's tough to get a handle on what's really going on at the NSA. However, James Bamford has done great work in documenting the agency's origins and Cold War exploits in The Puzzle Palace. Beginning with the earliest days of cryptography (code-making and code-breaking are large parts of the NSA's mission), Bamford explains how the agency's predecessors helped win World War II by breaking the German Enigma machine and defeating the Japanese Purple cipher. He also documents signals intelligence technology, ranging from the usual collection of spy satellites to a great big antenna in the West Virginia woods that listened to radio signals as they bounced back from the surface of the moon.
Bamford backs his serious historical and technical material (this is a carefully researched work of nonfiction) with warnings about how easily the NSA's technology could work against the democracies of the world. Bamford quotes U.S. Senator Frank Church: "If this government ever became a tyranny ... the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government ... is within the reach of the government to know." This is scary stuff. --David Wall
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- Publisher : Penguin Books; First Edition (September 29, 1983)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 656 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0140067485
- ISBN-13 : 978-0140067484
- Item Weight : 1.12 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.05 x 1.5 x 7.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #108,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #90 in Espionage True Accounts
- #116 in National & International Security (Books)
- #177 in Political Intelligence
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A bigger concern is Artificial Intelligence and what it could do to decryption and encryption. To me it seems that AI will do a fantastic job of creating Keys and do just as good a job, if not better, of deciphering Keys.
Since then, not only has the world of spydom changed (or at least I hope it has!!!), but nonfiction narratives have changed as well. This book is crammed with specifics but it reads like a textbook, which is about the way most nonfiction was written forty years ago. These days we expect and appreciate an easier reading experience--one that blends interesting narrative with otherwise dry facts.
Because it's dated, and dry, I wouldn't recommend this book to casual readers. If you're intrigued by the ins and outs of intelligence gathering and distribution, this book will provide some insight into how it's been done in the past. And when taken in this way, the book helped me understand how faulty our intelligence systems have been and how good they've been--at the same time.
But the book is probably going to be of most value to those interested in the history of secret agencies, the National Security Agency (NSA) in particular. Who ran the agency when, what types of intelligence they were gathering, how they distributed secret information across vast distances, which scandals most rocked the NSA's world, and how the agency became less secret are all covered.
When we consider that people as far removed as the leaders of Germany and Indonesia appear shocked by the 2013 revelations that NSA is spying on them, we can conclude either that they have never read this book or that they have and don't want to tell their citizens about it. In short, as Bamford points out, one or more members of the "5 Eyes Only" group has been spying on mass communications ever since the transatlantic cables were first laid, more than a century ago.
Another valuable part of this history is the laying to rest of some myths of WWII communications. Bamford's book is a good counterweight to books and articles emphasizing the Enigma device. I recall one author claiming that Roosevelt "knew" the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor and "let" it happen. Bamford supplies the more complex, nuanced story of how the communications failed due to human error, not to any "conspiracy."
The afterword contains the story of Geoffrey Arthur Prime, which is the closest we get to a Le Carre style spy story. Prime was carrying on his work while the 1974 Le Carre novel, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was being written. See pages 502-532 in the paperback edition I have. Perhaps NSA should assign someone to read spy novels.
There is one major problem with this edition, but it doesn't seem to be the author's fault.The blurb on the back of the book claims that the book includes "information on the NSA's secret role" in "major world events of the 1980s and 1990s." The afterward ends with 1982. There's nothing after that: No "Korean Airlines disaster [Sept 1, 1983], Iran-Contra [1986], [nor] the Gulf War [1990-91]."
Readers counting on the book to cover these topics should complain to Penguin Books.
You've got to read his latest - current book - SPY FAIL!
I understanding wanting to be thorough, but it is to a fault and can get overwhelming with minute details. It could have been shorter and been just as good. If you can wade through the names and dates, it is an interesting read.
The only other drawback is the date of the publication, which is 1982. An updated version would be great if it was possible.
Top reviews from other countries
Un livre que doit posséder les personnes passionnées par les écoutes et l'espionnage.
on the agency...Mr. Bamford has emerged with everything except the combination to the director's safe."
-- The New York Times Book Review








