THE PUZZLE PALACE: ARCHIVES AND NATIONAL SECURITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87-00181R000100090007-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: November 1, 1984
• Content Type: MISC

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The Puzzle Palace: Archives and National Security
In addition to the intelligence operations of the
better-known CIA and FBI, successive American
presidents and their administrations have relied
on the National Security Agency, established by
Harry Truman in 1952. NSA was created not by law
but by a top secret presidential memorandum ad-
dre-_u to the Secretary of State and Secretary
of Defense. One of NSA's principal tasks is
keeping secure codes for U.S. use and deciphering
communications of foreign governments.
The first book-length study of NSA, James Bamford's
The Puzzle Palace, was published in 1982. The
author, an investigative writer, cited research
at the National Archives in accessioned records
of the Departments of State, Defense, and Justice,
and in NSA records released by the Agency after
Freedom of Information Act requests. Additionally,
Bamford cited the papers of William F. Friedman
and General Marshall S. Carter, held by the George
C. Marshall Research.Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Friedman, who died over a decade ago, was head of
NSA's Code and Cipher Section. General Carter was
director of NSA, 1965-69, and is now president of
the Marshall Library's governing board, the Marshall
Foundation.
In early 1983, NSA officials visited the Marshall
Library as "part of our continuing review of re-
search materials used by author James Bamford,"
according to General Lincoln Faurer, NSA director.
Based on this review, Friedman materials which
already had been used by Bamford were ordered
closed to public access by NSA. The Carter papers
used in the book had been withdrawn from public
use at Carter's request after the publication of
The Puzzle Palace, according to Bamford.
Research by the SAA Newsletter determined that NSA
had reviewed the papers of Friedman at least
twice prior to Bamford's access to them. Selected
Friedman materials had been closed by the Library
during one of those reviews, in accordance with
NSA's orders.
The Marshall Library has a long history of close
cooperation with NSA. It exhibits museum items on
loan from the Agency. Fred C. Hadsel, director of
The George C. Marshall Research Foundation, told
the New York Times that the foundation's relation-
ship with the government "is not and should not be
(cont. on p. 2)
1983 Election Results
Andrea Hinding, University of Minnesota, was
elected vice president of SAA in the 1983 elec-
tions. She will become president at the 1984
annual meeting in Washington, DC. Hinding is
an SAA Fellow, a former Council member, and
editor of Women's History Sources: A Guide to
Archives and Manuscripts Collections in the United
States.
Three new Council members were elected. Because
1983-84 is the year of transition from an eight-
member Council to one with nine members, newly
elected Council members will serve terms of
differing lengths. Elected to a three-year
term was Linda Henry, American Psychiatric
Association. John Fleckner, Smithsonian Institu-
tion was elected to a two-year term, and Kenneth
Duckett, University of Oregon, was elected to a
one-year term.
Mary Jo Pugh, University of Michigan, Anne
Diffendal, Nebraska State Historical Society,
and Diana Lachatanere, Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture, were elected to the
1984 Nominating Committee. Diffendal has been
named to chair the group. SAA Members are in-
vited to suggest candidates for vice president,
Council, and Nominating Committee in the 1984
elections. Those suggestions should be sent
to Anne Diffendal, Nebraska State Historical
Society, 1500 "R" Street, Lincoln, NE 68508.
The Committee also encourages participants in
the 1983 annual meeting to bring names of sug-
gested candidates to the Nominating Committee
Open House, Thursday, October 6, from 11:15 am-
12:15 pm.
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The Puzzle Palace, cont.
an adversarial relationship," and added: "Collec-
tions come from different people and under different
circumstances and different conditions. We are
trying, step by step, to move toward an equitable
opening of all our collections."
Some scholars suggested that the removal of the
Friedman papers seemed pointless because the
material had been published in the Bamford volume.
The author claims to have copies of all the Fried-
man letters he used and states his willingness to
make them available to anyone who wishes to see
them.
An official of NSA told SAA that the Agency does
not intend to take action against Bamford or to
close materials he used at other locations.
And what of the original directive which established
NSA? According to Bamford, "Thirty years later Mr.
Truman's memorandum is still one of Washington's
most closely guarded secrets. Those seven pages
remain 'the foundation upon which all past and
current communications intelligence activities of
the United States government are based,' according
to a senior official of the National Security
Council. And in its defense against a 1976 lawsuit
seeking access to the memorandum, the NSA argued
successfully against the release of even one word:
'This memorandum remains the principal charter of
the National Security Agency and is the basis of
a number of other classified documents governing
the conduct of communications intelligence activi-
ties and operations, functions and activities of
the National Security Agency."'
Several notes of particular interest to archivists
emerge from the incident:
**The federal government has the legal authority to
classify "private" papers in a private library if
the material contains national security information.
**The Reagan Administration's 1982 Executive Order
12356 (see SAA News?'tter, May 1982, p. 1) on
classification gives federal agencies the authority
to reclassify material which has once been released
if the material is still considered sensitive and
can "reasonably be recovered."
**NARS experts stand ready to assist archivists
whose holdings include material which may contain
national security information. Copies of such papers
should be furnished through the mail for evaluation.
For more information and/or for the mailing instruc-
tions, contact Edwin A. Thompson or Jo Ann William-
son, Records Declassification Division, Room 18W,
MARS, Washington, DC 20408, [phone]. If a
private repository' collections contain material
which is classified, arrangements may be made for
appropriate storage and.administration on site, as
is the case at the Marshall Library. If appropriate
on-site arrangements are not possible, temporary
storage can be arranged in a federal repository.
0
Committee to Study Public Records
Sponsored by the Council on Library Resources (PI.R),
the American Council of Learned Societies, and
the Social Science Research Council, the Committee
on Public Records will begin work on July 1. The
committee will study the records of government.,
with emphasis on such matters as the expectations
of users both in government and out, the impact of
technology on both record generation and archival
operations, and the possible links among public
archives. Ernest R. May of Harvard will chair the
committee and Anna K. Nelson, George Washington
University, has been named staff director. May
served on the National Study Commission on the
Records and Documents of Public Officials and
Nelson was a member of the Commission's staff.
This 18-month study is being funded by the Mellon,
Sloan, and Rockefeller foundations, as well as by
CLR. The final report should be issued in January,
1985.
The committee will oversee the work of several
task forces, each looking at a different issue
relating to public records. Task force members
and assignments will also be announced in early
fall. Asked what the involvement of archivists
will be in the work of the committee, Nelson
replied: "Archival. participation will be absolute-
ly essential to the success of the study. Archivists
will be called upon to participate as consultants,
in the task forces, and in the work of the staff."
Information Management Report
A document entitled Managing Federal Information
Resources was issued by the Office of Management
and Budget in April 1983. It is the second annual
report under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980
and indicates, according to OMB Director David
Stockman, "excellent progress in furthering the
Act's important policies of improved information
management within the Federal Government." A
review of the report's contents discloses that
the National Archives and Records Service plays
no role in the activities which are chronicled.
Indeed, NARS is not mentioned once in the entire
48-page coverage of information management
activities.
SAA Newsletter
July 1983 2
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