The following podcast contains advertising.

To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast,

become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair.

That's patreon.com slash law fair.

Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings,

rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.

The current relevance of this story of NSA's origins and growth in the Cold War

is that these institutional cultures, the habits of mind go right back to NSA's origins

and even pre-arrogens in World War II.

The imperative to get everything, one of the most striking memorandum that I read in the course of my research,

was written in 1942 by the head of either, I can't remember now,

whether it was the Army or Navy's codebreakers.

And he said, our job is to paint as complete a picture as we can,

to get as close as humanly possible to intercepting every single radio transmission in the world,

deciphering it, translating it, of all those arrayed with us and against us.

That certainly has echoes that come through to today.

I'm Quinta Gerussick and this is the LawFair podcast July 23rd, 2016.

Steve Badyanski is the author of Code Warriors, NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War

against the Soviet Union.

He joined Ben at the Hoover Book Swarray for a live conversation about his new book,

which studies the National Security Agency's origins in World War II codebreaking

and its development throughout the Cold War.

...