American Cryptology during the Cold War - The Black Vault

Ib) (3) -P.L. 86-36
The new NSCID made the secretary of defense the executive agent, and it decreed that
the system would consist of the existing COMINT communications system augmented and
modified as necessary. The DCI would establish Critic.criteria. NSA was not mentioned,
but it was hardly necessary. The JCS had already named NSA to manage the system. It
was to be completed by 1961. 6
No one was really sure how NSA would magically produce a system that could meet
the ten-minute timeliness goal. COMINT communications at the time were a lash-up of
NSA and service communications. Communication centers wete basically «torn-tape"
r~lays, and there was no hope of getting anything to the White House in that sort of time
frame. NSA had been working on an automated switching device lOf several years, but
had not yet come up with a switch that was acceptable to all parties. In this atmosphere
someone would have to improvise.
NSA's communicators, headed by Arthur Enderlin, Max Davidson, andl
began tinkering with off-the-shelf commercial hardware that would permit a Critic to
steam through the system untouched by human hands. A key element in their search was
the shunt box, a device invented by Teletype Corporation that could recognize a unique
combination ofletters (for instance, ZZZ) and open up circuitry all the way to Washington.
Nothing else would flow in that path until the «express train" had passed through. 7
Back in Washington, NSA had created a system of direct communications, called
ZICON, with its Washington-level customers. This communications group was expanded to
include all organizations on distributions for the initial Critic. This included, in the early
days, the White House and members of USIB (less FBI and AEC). Later, SAC (Strategic
Air Command), ADC (Air Defense Command), TAC (Tactical Air Command), and
STRICOM (Strike Command) were added and still later, the other Unified and Specified
Commands. 8
The advent of the KW-26 cryptoequipment was critical to the functioning of the new
system. With it, the system speeded up to 100 words per minute, and messages zipped
through at almost twice the previous speed.
Criticomm needed relay centers, and in 1959 NSA directed that the Army operate
centers in Europe, Eritrea, the Philippines, Okinawa, and Japan. The Navy would do the
job in Hawaii, while the Air Force would take on the same responsibilities in England,
Turkey, and Alaska. NSA would operate the central hub at Fort Meade. At the same time
the TCOM organization, which had so recently been subordinated to Prod, was once again
made independent, in recognition ofits new standing. 9
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