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American Cryptology during the Cold War - The Black Vault

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Ib) (1)<br />

Ib) (3) -50 USC 403<br />

Ib) (3) -18 USC 798<br />

Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36<br />

All three services created administrative units to supervise <strong>the</strong>ater intercept sites,<br />

and to serve a liaison function with <strong>the</strong> supported commander(s). However, <strong>the</strong>y all<br />

showed a disinclination to combine operational and administrative functions in <strong>the</strong> same<br />

organization, believing those to be separate tasks.58<br />

Watching <strong>the</strong> Watchers<br />

DIRNSA's supervisor was not really <strong>the</strong> secretary ofdefense, despite what <strong>the</strong> Truman<br />

Memorandum said. In 1953 <strong>the</strong> secretary of defense assigned that job to General Graves<br />

B. Erskine, a Marine Corps four-star who was already assigned to his staffas head of <strong>the</strong><br />

Office of Special Operations. Erskine monitored <strong>the</strong> CIA budget, which was hidden in <strong>the</strong><br />

DoD budget, and after July 1953 he also monitored NSA. His deputy, Air Force colonel<br />

Edward Lansdale, later became famous as <strong>the</strong> author ofcovert actions projects in both <strong>the</strong><br />

Philippines and Vietnam.<br />

<strong>The</strong> monitoring that Erskine did was ra<strong>the</strong>r loose. He always retained professional<br />

cryptologists on his staff to work <strong>the</strong> details of cryptologic money, and under such a<br />

85

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