Editing National Security Agency (section)

=== The Black Chamber ===
{{Main|Black Chamber}}
[[File:Black Chamber cryptanalytic work sheet for solving Japanese diplomatic cipher, 1919 - National Cryptologic Museum - DSC07698.JPG|thumb|right|Black Chamber cryptanalytic work sheet for solving Japanese diplomatic cipher, 1919]]

After the disbandment of the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] cryptographic section of military intelligence known as MI-8, the U.S. government created the Cipher Bureau, also known as [[Black Chamber]], in 1919. The Black Chamber was the United States' first peacetime [[cryptanalytic]] organization.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yardley |first=Herbert O. |title=The American Black Chamber |publisher=[[United States Naval Institute|Naval Institute Press]] |year=1931 |isbn=978-1-59114-989-7 |location=Annapolis, MD}}</ref> Jointly funded by the Army and the State Department, the Cipher Bureau was disguised as a [[New York City]] [[commercial code (communications)|commercial code]] company; it produced and sold such codes for business use. Its true mission, however, was to break the communications (chiefly diplomatic) of other nations. At the [[Washington Naval Conference]], it aided American negotiators by providing them with the decrypted traffic of many of the conference delegations, including the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]]. The Black Chamber successfully persuaded [[Western Union]], the largest U.S. [[Telegraphy|telegram]] company at the time, as well as several other communications companies, to illegally give the Black Chamber access to cable traffic of foreign embassies and consulates.<ref>{{cite news|last=James Bamford|title=Building America's secret surveillance state|url=http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/06/10/building-americas-secret-surveillance-state/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613121507/http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/06/10/building-americas-secret-surveillance-state/|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 13, 2013|work=Reuters|access-date=November 9, 2013}}</ref> Soon, these companies publicly discontinued their collaboration. Despite the Chamber's initial successes, it was shut down in 1929 by U.S. Secretary of State [[Henry L. Stimson]], who defended his decision by stating, "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail."<ref name="encyc">{{cite book|last1=Hastedt|first1=Glenn P.|title=Spies, wiretaps, and secret operations: An encyclopedia of American espionage|year=2009|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=978-1-85109-807-1|page=32|author2=Guerrier, Steven W.}}</ref>