W UU0W 11 lBlDU1UU f W B UlIlWU l lIlW l Wl UJlDl f WUJW f1 iJUJlD m lUl JI1l J D BUmGl3f B tJ0ED4J THOUGHTS OLD AND NEW RANDOM AND CAUSAL U oooooo oooo oooooooo J l DEVELOPMENT OF ON-LINE PROCESSING SYSTEMS U oo o o 5 A PARTING SHOT U oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo E Leigh Sawyer ooooooooooooo 9 I REMEMBER U ooooooooooo oooooo ooooooooooo W P Me ye r oooooooooo o 11 ON SPELLING PLAIN TEXT U I 12 NATIONAL INTERESTS CORNERSTONE OF OUR FOREIGN POLICY CU ooooo o l 14 PROGRAMMING CREATIVITY AND HUMOR U J 18 NSA-CROSTIC NO 58 U oooooo o o oo oo o ooo D H W o o o o ooo o 20 I 'fIllS BOEURtJMEN'f eON'f2 INS eOBEWORB MATERIAl OJ ASSIFIEB BY PI8 08811 123 2 Q QPigis8eisg Agency's Belelmiualioli Reql1 ired ES 6SSIF Declassified and Approved for Release by NSA on 10-16-2012 pursuant to E O 13526 MDR Case # 547713 FeR eFFieiAb eSEl eUJ H aCID 4009931 Published by PI Techniques and Standards OCTOBER 1984 VOL Xl No 10 PUBLISHER BOARD OF EDITORS Editor ooo o oo o L Production o 1 Collection o o Computer sec u r t l l 963-3045S 963-3369s 11 - Editorial Well we moved again Just about the time we got the magazine caught up too Once again we were reminded about how far we have come since the 01 d penci 1 and graph paper days It was a shock to real i ze that without this big brown Volkswagen Bus of a terminal we were lost 963-39618 859- 044 Cryptolinguistics l--- 963-1103s Data Systems o II 963-4953s Information Scie n c e------------ o o 1 963 57l1s Puzzles Dav d H W l bams 963-1l03s Special Research Vera R Filb J 968-71l9s Traffic Analysis o Robert J HanYOWj 96S-8418S 6 For subscriptions G send name and organizat pn to 1 IPl4' P L 86-36 To submit articles or letters by mail to PI Cryptolog via PLATFORM mail send to cryptolg at barlc 5 bar-one-c-zero-five note no '0' in 'log' Content of Cryptolog should not be reproduced or further disseminated outside the NatiOnal Security Agency without the permisIlion of the Pl lbUsher Inquiries regarding reproduction and dissemination should be direCted to the Editor It was once true that after a move we caul d just sit down and begin to work All our raw data was on paper in folders or bundles safely tucked away in our file cabinets So long as those file cabinets stayed with us so did our ability to do our assigned job But that is no longer true All our data is now buried in a computer somewhere among the viscera of this mini-city To touch it to look at it to work with it you need an electrical connection to wherever it resides Given that connection anyone of us can do things it took many people to do in those good old days and often in much less time However once we come to reI y upon this new high-tech approach we are at the mercy literally of the system that keeps those connections working I put quotes around the good old days because I'm not so sure they were Frankly I like the new approach I think that moving the computer out of the machine room and onto the anal yst 's desk is the right thing to do However I have just spent seven weeks without my terminal connection on a previous move I waited almost six months to be permitted to do my job I still advocate this new high-tech approach but at just this moment it is not easy to plead the case with a straight face In fact I'm thinking of ordering another file cabinet FeR eFFie Mb eS8 BtIJoY TOP SECIlEt UUIiM EO 1 4 d P L 86-36 Oct 84 CRYPTOLOG Pa Oll 4 d O 1 4 c P L Tep 86SRB'f UUB ' 86-36 8P SEeRE mlB i 4009931 EO 1 4 c EO 1 4 d P L 86-36 Oct 84 8P CRYPTOLOG SEeRE Page mlBRir 2 ep 4009931 SSeRS ffllBKA EO 1 4 c EO 1 4 d P L 86-36 Oct 84 CRYPTOLOG Page 3 ero 4009931 TOl' I eft UlI lt A I Chairman EO 1 4 c EO 1 4 d P L 86-36 P L Bookbreakers' Forum on Machine Aids Oct 84 CRYPTOLOG Page 4 'fSP BHeMl'f tJlfBlbIt 86-36 aCID 4009931 TQP 6l iSRET l Rllllblt EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 DEVELOPMENT OF ON-LINE PROCESSING SYSTEMS It'l Oct 84 CRYPTOLOG Page 5 EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 'rep SI iSR'Ei'r IRtBR I G85 aCID 4009931 EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 Oct 84 CRYPTOLOG Page 6 'Pep SS6ll6'P UUBRA ' lap aCID 4009931 EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 - Oct 84 s13e 'f UHtifb CRYPTOLOG Page 7 aCID 'i'8P 8BElR 'i' UlIBlh't 4009931 We forgot to h e ol ll' ep frnL o 4 bserifilo inove Wil lIc tell tor P L Oct 84 CRYPTOLOG 'i'ElP SFlSHET YMiRA Page 8 EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 86-36 FBR BFFleIAb aCID HS 6Ub'l 4009931 PARTING SHOT U by E Leigh Sawyer 8 PREFACE When I was recalled to military service in 1951 I was living in Connecticut and had never heard of some sort of government instrumentality with the acronym AFSA I soon found out when I found myself working in Building 19 at 3801 Nebraska Avenue I was soon aware as well of AFSA operations going on at Arlington Hall Station in A and B Buildings Since that time I have watched NSA the successor of AFSA grow at Fort Meade FANX and for that matter world-wide Some NSA folks still on board will remember the two locomotives in the mid-50's adjacent to the barracks just to the east of the eastern segment of Canine Road Belching steam and smoke all day they supp lied the heat to the barracks we were occupying temporarily until the new operations building was completed Since that time the proliferation of NSA plant facilities and of the people to work in them has been dramat ic In fac t the looming of Building 2A in its final stages of completion and Building 2B not too far behind in its construction is almost mind-boggling when considering the NSA of 25 years ago On the other hand from this growth arises the specter of the penalty of bigness One symptom of this specter is what led me to write what is to follow In this connection there occurs to me at times what might be termed the parable of the dinosaur and the cockroach The dinosaur in essence specialized himself into extinction From what I understand the cockroach today is pretty much unchanged from when it co-existed with the dinosaurs and is still sufficiently efficient to be fattening the pockets of extermination companies A lesson of sorts here Oct 84 FeR CRYPTOLOG has pUblished a number of articles by Leigh Sawyer This will be his last for he is retiring at the end of this year His Parting Shot draws upon his perceptions from the era of Ralph J Cani ne to the present His concern expressed in this article reflects a deepseated devotion to NSA and sensitivity to the critical importance of its mission to the nation In the September 1984 UPDATE on the Campaign for Excellence PQS results of a survey were included which reflected the views of a slice of the civilian work force on PQS issues The issues concerned covered a fairly broad spectrum involving a variety of individual perceptions of being a part of NSA As I read the results of the survey I was particularly interested in the findings appearing under EMPLOYEE KNOWLEDGE OF THE NSA MISSION These were 53% A good understanding 40% Some idea but would like more 5% Very little but would like to know more 2% Not important The survey results noted above immediately triggered my mind on a subject that I have preached on many times in the past--ranging from lunch table conversation to addresses I CRYPTOLOG eFFleI b HS Page 9 ffllb'l aCID 4009931 Fell eFFISltrl NSS SllhY have made to various management classes My text has been centered on some confusion bet ween ends and means I t is my very strong conviction that far too many NSA personnel believe that their work may be characterized as ends in themselves when if the truth were to be known they are involved only in the means The distinction is of the greatest importance and relates directly to those survey results not ed above The mission of P with which I am most familiar is to report SIGINT This is one of the two prime reasons for the existence of this Agency The other 0 f course is the mission of S On the one hand we exploit the communications of target countries on the other we protect our own This is it in a nutshell It follows naturally that every drop of energy exerted by the entire NSA work force somehow relates to the successful accomplishment of either one of these two mission objectives The survey results confirm my long time conviction that too many NSA employees are far from sensitive to this fact of life Delving into the P organization let's consider for a moment which people are involved in ends and which ones in means If you wish to be a complete purist you might judge that only those who write SIGINT reports are involved wi th ends Th is is probab ly far too narrow for definition purposes Certainly the transcriber the traffic analyst the cryptanalyst and others directly involved in hands-on processes must also be counted in as ends people You needn I t ask them if they are aware of the NSA miss ion in any survey Insofar as P is concerned they are what the success of the mission directly depends upon beyond any quest ion If you don't believe this consider the consequences if suddenly with a wave of the magic wand they all disappeared Cons tder further the remaining P organization On the basis of the bottom line mission objective of P as noted above the remaining P organization would have literally nothing to do Th is is somewhat akin to what would happen to the multi-faceted fishing industry--from processing plants to the man in the white apron at the local super market who will fillet your flounder from the wholesale outlets to the guy who writes TV commercials for cat food and on and on--if all fishermen worldwide decided that they would rather raise chickens Whether it be fresh fish or fresh SIGINT one can easily bring to mind in either case the dust rising from a vast expanse of rubble after a previously elaborate structure has collapsed on itself Oct 84 One may ask how far we must go to reach that magic dividing line with the ends types on one side and the means types on the other Not very far really In the P world I would draw the line basically at the division level To put it in the vernacular from the division down is Where it's all aL The further you go up the 1 ine from the divis ion level the less frequently will you encounter people in ends jobs--if you find any at all This is not to stigmatize unfairly the means people in any way As a mat ter of fact I would judge throughout the P organization that the entire work force has a good perspective of the ends being sought and how their work relates in some fashion to it There might be a few backwashes where this assumpt ion does not hold up but not many in my opinion So let's depart from P and cons ider the rest of the Agency except for some chunks of Sand R If I could find a blanket large enough I would throw it over them emblazoned with the letters MEANS Now supposing I were to lift a corner of this blanket and grab out the first soul I saw Supposing I were to say to him Sir step outside here for a moment See those big words on the blanket You and all those other people under the blanket are 'means' types What basic ends do you serve If he were one of the 2% respondents in the survey he would say I don't know I don't care Get off my back If he were one of the 5% respondents he might say I'm not sure It's got something to do wi th national security doesn't it And as for a respondent in the 40% bracket he might say It's something or other about something called S IGNIT or something 1 ike that I'm not certain what the latest buzz figure is for the total Agency civilian population but I do know that 47% of it assuming the 825 people polled are representative constitutes a lot of people who are far from clear in varying degrees about basic work motivations Pride on the part of a person doing a job in some sort of a supporting role is to be expected But this same pride can be far deeper far more meaningful if that same person understands that somehow what he has done and done well is traceable for ultimate effect to the ends people on the firing line If he does not know this he can only experience what I would term pr ide in a vacuum How much greater and meaningful is his pride if he knows his accomplishment no matter how remote from the firing line was done as a part of the team Every blessed person in the Agency is part of that team The depressing thing is that they all don't know it It follows that the challenge of this is to ensure that everyone knows what the CRYPTOLOG Page 10 FSR ElFFNHAh NSEi ElllhY aCID S811FHlENifI ' b 4009931 fundamental ends are that justify the existence of NSA Putting it in horological terms that little itty bitty cog on that little itty bitty gear in the innards of the clock is contributing somehow to the movement of the hands If you were to ask that cog what it does it would be much better to hear I help people tell time rather than I hang on and spin around Without belaboring further the main thread of the foregoing the prime question arising is how to cope with this problem One might be inclined to suggest that the initiation of some kind of program to make all personnel far more sensitive to the fundamental ends that the Agency attempts to accomplish might trespass on the principle of need to know This would be a ridiculous reservation since there is a sharp difference between what the ends are and the methods used to achieve them Along these lines a flier was recently distributed about a program labelled HINT In essence the program invites all cleared and indoctrinated personnel especially those outside the operations Directorate to hear briefings on current intelligence and related subjects This is a step in the right direction but will never overcome the basic problem of mission awareness The main reasons for this are very s imple--lethargy apathy and physical remoteness for many from either of the two auditoriums specified for the purpose We are cont inually bombarded by the need for innovativeness and imaginativeness in our work In this particular situation such is badly needed How can you expect a person to be a cognizant member of the team until he knows what the game is For example if we trundle a VCR from work space to work space so that the cast of Cheers can tell us why we should buy bonds why can't we use the same device to broaden awareness of the fundamental Agenc y miss ion This is one way to do it There are others The point is who is smart enough to know that something of this sort should be done and has the authority to say do it v v Back in the 6th century B C the Chinese philosopher Lao zi proposed the planting of trees around the imperial palace both for beaut i Hcat ion and for screening from the winter winds He was told that the trees would need at least 100 years to reach full growth Lao Zi replied Then we'd better get started now SOLUTION TO NSA-CROSTIC No 57 Department of Golden Oldies Management Survey of the Philharmonic Reprinted in CRYPTOLOG Vol I No 1 August 1974 from HOSPITALS March 1954 The author is unknown Excerpt from a I management survey I of the ----- Philharmonic Orchestra For considerable periods the four oboe players have nothing to do Their number should be reduced and the work spread more evenly over the whole of the concert thus eliminating peaks of activity I Remember U - f' During the 1960's Security asked Li-' brary Acquisitions to obtain a publication called I believe Directory of Far Right Organizations It was published by an obscure post office box firm somewhere in the West Price unknown U Library Acquisitions normally verified price and availability of all publications before placing an order This time I asked a small book store in Washington D C if they waul d order it for us A fter a few weeks 'th e pub1icat ion was received by them and forwarded on to us e-t-A year later the saine firm issued their new publication Individuals and Organi zations interested in the Far Right The Washington Post picked up on this and published a little squib about the only book store in the Washington area that was listed as being an outlet sic of far right publications The 'book store listing was a direct result of our request to them to order the publication U Many organizations rent their membership list out to other publishers obviously this firm had taken their mailing list and capitalized on it What if I had written a cost-and-availability letter to them Certainly it would have been very embarrassing to have NSA appear on their list W P Meyer FANX Librarian Oct 84 CRYPTOLOG Page 11 aCID FeR eFnSI tJ HS6 etlIJY 4009931 SPELLING PLAIN TEXT U by 1L --_ _----JI G61 IIII- t of he pLain tm suitable' for the noun 01' spelling if then plain-text would be the appropriate spelling when the noun is used to modify another noun However as I intend to demonstrate that plain text is not at all desirable this observation will be rendered moot Secondly to avoid begging the question I resort to spell ings like plain text Fortunately this essay is written rather than spoken since plain text and plaintext have quite different pronunciations and I don't know how to pronounce plain text Now the spelling of compounds in English is not at all straightforward It fluctuates a good bit almost always in the direction of the solid spelling sometimes bypassing a hyphenated spelling entirely In this article I will concentrate on adjective-noun compounds hoping that everyone can agree that the plain of plain text is an adjective even though the cipher of cipher text is a noun Consider the following sentences Blue birds are blue birds The blue bird is a blue bird That blue bird is a cerulean warbler Wi thout visual or aur al clues it may be difficult at first to discern even what is being said but nearly everyone will agree that the correct spellings are 86-36 Wayne I think that I told you about he brief discussion I had with I I when we changed his title from an Saving Plaintext to On Saving Plain Text because Creepylog had been making a distinction between the adj one wd c the noun 2 wds He doesn't exactly agree as you can see HGR Other spellings give other meanings some of which even make sense in certain contexts Note how the accentual pattern of bluebirds differs from that of blue birds in the compound the first syllable has the stronger accent Now plain text has the accentual pattern of bluebird The spelling plain text suggests the accentual pattern of blue bird and can moment ar ily throw the reader off the track Note that plain text when contrasted with cipher text has a third accentual pattern the same as in That's not a green bird it's a blue bird this pattern is sometimes represented in writing with italics but the reader usually needs no clue beyond the context In any case this paper does not deal with the contrastive pattern Derailing readers as the preceding long parenthesis may have done is not nice So we have at least a prima facie case for the spelling plaintext The burden of proof shifts to those who favor the broken spelling And perhaps I should simply let them speak for Bluebirds are blue birds The bluebird is a blue bird That blue bird is a cerulean warbler Oct 84 P L CRYPTOLOG Page 12 P8R 8PHSlft lfSB 8UbY 4009931 themselves But to prepare the way for weightier matters I will suggest two arguments they could put forth First not all English compounds with the accentual pattern of plain text are written solid We have yellow jacket not a flavid garment but a wasp some noun-noun examples include ice cream or iginally iced cream and light ray no not a slender manta Sometimes a compound remains open because closing it would lead to a word odd in appearance or seemingly hard to pronounce as in lightray or seaurchin These observations hardly seem to provide adequate reason to flout common sense in the case of a compound like plain text Tradition gives plain text some support whether it be CRYPTOLOG's Consistency Guidelines or Random House's Dictionary rumored to have assigned the wrong number of humps to a dromedary or Funk Wagnalls once a national joke now out of print Although Merriam-Webster used to have plain text it now gives plaintext Merriam wisely refuses to give space to alternate spellings of compounds listing the version it observes most or a version formed by analogy to similar compounds The other two leading college dictionaries are silent on plain text but the New World does suggest the solid spelling when the referent having a compound name becomes so famil iar that it is thought of for itself rather than mainly within a generic classification as ha s 'redbird' page xx i No cryptanalyst thinks of plain text as merely some kind of text Tradition is certainly a good thing but to insist that standards never be changed is logically equivalent to insisting on the spelling clarus textus or whatever the Proto-IndoEuropean for plain text may have been A second argument is that consistency has merit whether to enhance a publication's esthetic appeal or to facilitate data retrieval But as standards change and some inev itably do there comes a time when a new consistency should be inaugurated Possibly plain text did in fact have the accentual pattern of blue bird years ago when the standards were first promulgated and only years of frequent contrast with cipher text have given it a pattern like bluebird A new standard seems to be in order Certainly most examples of plain text that I have seen in print have the spelling plaintext especially if I may discount examples in publications like CRYFTOLOG that consciously adhere to other standards For editors to insist on consistency in the spelling of compounds may result in the slowing down of the natural process by which careful writers enable a language's written form to more closely approximate its spoken cadencies Oct 84 It's certainly desirable to encourage good writing standards but I think it is important to advocate sympathetic reading habits as well Let me give two examples that I think reflect an excessive zeal for standards that inhibits a reader's comprehension Please don't misunderstand I do not ascribe to all who wield a red pencil the infelicities I am about to relate For one thing I sometimes wield a red pencil myself moreover I realize that many who do so are trying to protect people like me from what nearly befell me in the second incident below Incidentally it was refreshing to see the spelling 'Bluepencils' in the December issue CRYPTOLOG is way ahead of the lexicographers on this one A recent CRYPTOLOG writer chided a reporter who either didn't do his homework or decided to go modern when in describing a recent hurricane he said 'Damage will be in the millions but only one person lost their life ' Apparently the reporter is male but the sex of the viet im is irrelevant to the story and perhaps unknown to the reporter His or her and his her seem especially inappropriate Their is the only pronoun suitable to the occas ion This use of their is not modern the Oxford English Dic t ionary has examples as long ago as Middle English Now I suppose the reporter could have said ooo only one person died These grammatical reflections distract us from the observation that perhaps the reporter should have said Damage will be in the millions One person has died A few years ago I submitted a paper towards certification in Computer Science The first reader rejected it citing for the most part alleged grammat ical errors A second reader accepted it as did the tiebreaking third reader in fact they both accepted the paper with honors entitling me to the sweetest after-taxes $37 50 in a long time The first reader's zeal obscured the paper's merit from him And his zeal was all but unbounded One error was my use of commoner and commonest Fowler insists on the morphological comparison and I have noted dozens of fine writers using these forms The other error was the absence of with after begin as if the answer to the question How does the Nat ional Anthem begin has to be It begins with '0 say can you see o ''' So now you know why I originally entitled my CRYPTOLOG art ic Ie from last January On Saving Plaintext and why I am glad the CRYPTOLOG people didn't reject it out of hand for alleged spelling errors Anyways I at least snuck a split infinitive past the editors' watchful eyes oo to automatically generate CRYPTOLOG Page 13 '8ft 8PFfSfAb WSK Qtlh aCID 4009931 FeR eFFI8IAI l B8E eUI l CORNERSTONE OF OUR FOREIGN POLICY lUI P L A noted historian recently wrote Foreign policy is the face a nation wears to the world The minimal motive is the same for all states- U the protection of national integrity and interest The allusion to the protection of national interest will be a familiar phrase to those who follow recent discussions of foreign policy Within the last year the protection of national interests has been evoked as the basis for our country's military action in Grenada and the stationing of American mar ines in Lebanon The terms nat ional n- terest' ' vital interests' and strategic interests pervade media discussions of our nation's relations with the rest of the world The almost constant references to these concepts naturally lead to the question What are these national interests that seem so quickly threatened and require such dec is i ve act ion D The purpose of this essay is to look at the concept of American interests in its most basic form The essay seeks to trace very briefly the historical background and trends that have made our perception of American nat ional interests what it is Along with defining broadly national interests this essay will also seek to point out the implications resulting from how we define our national interests U At this junc ture a disclaimer is necessary This essay will not attempt to judge the various perceptions of national interests adopted by past administrations This discussion is not large enough in scope to judge between such nuances and the taking of particular sides is not a function of this undertakeing Still although limited in scope Oct 84 86-36 the importance of analyzing the concepts at hand must again be emphasized A direct and concise discussion of American national interests in the foreign policy sphere should provide a valuable perspective concerning the place our country has assumed in the world community U Our nat ion I sear ly leaders recognized the role of national interests in the sphere of internat ional relat ions Of their views it has been written They believed that states responded to specific national interests--and were morally obliged to do so if there were to be regularity and predictability in international affairs George Washington said No nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by interest D Our founding fathers viewed the birth of our nation as the beginning of a unique experiment in democracy The precarious nature of the undertaking became all too apparent when the newly es tab I ished colonies were threatened by the great powers of Europe early in the nineteenth century It was at this point in our history that an abiding aspect of our national interest took form The continuation of our experiment in democracy depended upon the maintenance of a balance of power in Europe In other words it became in our national interest to have those countries who were in a position to threaten us held in check by one another In those years the threats came from France and Great Britain CRYPTOLOG Page 14 FeR eFFleIAI l B8Ei eliIS aCID eFFleIA FeR 4009931 _ ' _ ' _ 1-' ll ' o''' I ' --- ' I tJ - - ' ' - ' f ' l ' ' ' ' ' i 1 C t tl t f ''' -' ''''' ''t o ' 'illJlfl ' f' drances to Amencan deve lopm nt Because a balance of power was ma1nta1ned 1n Europe there was no threat to America and thus the new nation was able to distance itself from European entanglements U The possibility that one country should come to dominate the others in the Old World great ly concerned our first policymakers Such a series of events was perceived to be a grave threat John Adams noted concerning the two great powers of his time It never could be in our interest to unite with France in the destruction of On the other hand it England could never be our duty to unite with Br itain in too great a humi liat ion of France CU In 1814 When Britain was at war against France and America Thomas Jefferson neverthe less expressed concern for Napo leon's victories in the rest of Europe He wrote It cannot be to our interest that all Europe should be reduced to a single monarchy Were he Napoleon advanced to Moscow I should again wish him disaster as would prevent his reaching Petersburg And were the consequences even to be the longer continuance of our war I would rather meet them than see the whole force of Europe wielded by a single hand v The view of our early policy makers was that the United States was marking the beginning of an experiment in democracy that could affect the whole world If left on its own cour se the ear ly leaders expec ted that the development of democracy in America would in time prove to be an example for other nations Therefore the overriding national interest became the encouragement of international events to proceed in a direction that would keep power from becoming concentrated in FQR nat10n 1 1 ' o t r J 'Ir f i '' l Oct 84 I U Following the resolution of the threats from England an France during the first few decades of Amer1ca' s eX1stence the European powers were held in balance by each other thro ghout most o the nineteenth centu y Amer1can 1ntervent10n to protect 1nterests was not needed However as eVldence '3' t i I W''''''' ''' I 1 rR 4J a single place A dangerous level was perceived to be the point at which the American democratic experiment could be threatened by an outs ide party 7 ' ' ' V - ' f ' - ' 4 HB'B ellb'f CU With the coming of the twentieth century a new threat arose Twice in the first half of the century the domination of Europe by a single nation seemed a possibility As Jefferson had earlier remarked our interest dictated that war was a more attractive option than seeing Europe succumb to foreign domination CD Following World War II the threat to the international balance of power shifted eastward to the Soviet Vnion where it remains today In fact the need to contain the USSR's expansionist policies has been the primary concern of American national interests since 1945 v Although the way our nation defined its national interest remained basically the same following World War II the American position on the international scene permanently changed After the war the United States emerged as a superpower and began to assume a pas it ion as leader of the Free War ld Also the potential for threats to our experiment became much greater with the advent of nuclear weapons These factors contributed to the reluctant end of the American tradition of isolationism once and for all CD Because of America's new-found responsibility as leader of the Free World our national interests naturally have been affected While not being significantly altered the concept of protecting democratic experiments has expanded In time the assumption developed that our interests were not merely confined to ensuring the prosperity of our own unique experiment in democracy As the leader of the Free World our responsibility now involved guaranteeing the potential of other nations to pursue their own experiments as well CRYPTOLOG QFn Page 15 lSI lS6 81H 'f 4009931 u It is precisely at this point that we find ourselves today After a decade in which the view of national interests seemed muddled or slightly out of focus the outline is emerging clearly once again The threat to our national interest is again perceived to be the concentration of international power in the hands of a force that could threaten the democratic institutions of the Free World including our own U Foreign policy makers within the current administrat ion have art iculated this tradit ional view of American interests succinctly In 1982 when testifying before a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee the Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs stated consolidation of power and influence in the world by a single state This containment is desirable so that democratic institutions may prosper While American concern initially centered primarily on the protection of our own institutions our responsibilities have in this century expanded to include protecting similar institutions in other nations U The natural progression of our discussion leads now to an analysis of the implications that our definition of American national interests has for our country's foreign policy Commenting on America's aptitude for engaging in foreign affairs Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Foreign politics demand scarcely any of those qualities which are peculiar to democracy They require on the contrary the perfect use of almost all those qualities in which it is deficient Democracy is favorable to the increase of the internal resources of the state it diffuses wealth and comfort promotes public spirit and fortifies the respect of law in all classes of society All these advantages have only an indirect influence over the relations one people bears to another A democracy can only with great difficulty regulate the details of an important undertaking persevere in a fixed design and work out its execution in spite of serious obstac les In its broadest terms our principal strategic interest is deterring the increasingly assertive Soviet presence in East Asia and the Indian Ocean This can best be achieved by supporting growth and stability in the region through the variety of security political economic and commercial programs we pursue U In Latin America this country's interests are defined in similar terms The President's speech before the National Associat ion of Managers in March 1983 provided the following excerpts Central America is simply too close and the strategic stakes too high for us to ignore the danger of governments seizing power there with ideological and military ties to the Soviet Union The Communist agenda on the other hand is to exploit human suffering in Central America to strike at the heart of the Western Hemisphere By preventing reform and instilling their own brand of totalitarianism they can threaten freedom and peace and weaken our nat ional secur ity We've been too slow to understand that the defense of the Caribbean and Central America against Marxist-Leninist takeover is vital to our national security in ways we're not accustomed to thinking about U Hopefully at this point in our discussion a definition of American national interests is becoming clear Although the definit ion is admittedly broad these interest s can be summarized as the desire to contain the Oct 84 u Tocqueville suggests that inherent qualities of a democratic nation make it difficult for that nation to operate in the foreign policy sphere One aspect of the difficulty is that a democratic nation is quite capable of operat ing in an international political vacuum Even in the absence of political support from abroad a democratic state can still perfect its own national institut ions In fact it is dur ing this absence of outside political interference that democratic institutions often find their most fertile environment for growth U But the question is raised How does this relate to a discussion of the national interest Basically the implication is that our national interests will have a tendency to combine with these inherent qualities of democracy to cause our foreign policy to be reactionary In other words a foreign policy will be fostered that is better suited to respond or react to threats or crises than to dictate the course of world events Left to their own devices American policymakers would be content to concentrate on our nation's internal development The reluctance of many policymakers to endorse our recent deployment CRYPTOLOG Page 16 PQR 8PPI8Ilk YSB 8IfbY aCID 4009931 FeR eFFl8 lAb eBB eUI l1 of American forces in the Caribbean and Middle East evidences this tendency Also this internal development of our nation can be accomplished with no political help or influence from abroad However when threats are perceived to the safety of our institutions then we undertake the most active involvement in foreign affairs U The vision mentioned earlier that the United States is destined to provide a democratic example to the world is not precluded because of our tendency to be reactive to internat ional events While this vis ion has been a part 0 f our nat iona I psyche from the beginning it has never been a precondition for our nat ional development The contrast can be drawn with the Soviet Union A fundamental principle of the Soviet raison d'etre is that fostering revolution in other countries The fulfillment of its purposes means significant involvement in the affairs of other nations In much the same way our vision for influence by example is far removed from the insatiable appetite for domination evidenced by some ultra-rightwing regimes most notably Nazi Germany U The tendency to part ic ipate mos t act ively in the internat ional arena when responding to threats leads to some difficulties An emphasis is placed on solving the pressing international problems Less importance is given to the preventive possibilities of foreign policy in other words on catching the problems before they become pressing America has at times remained on the sidelines in great disputes until catastrophes have occurred Our positions with regard to the aggression of Japan and Nazi Germany prior to our involvement in World War II comes to mind U Another implication of our definition of national interests is that our foreign policy might tend to globalize regional disputes The tendency could be to focus on the threats to the global balance of power result ing from a local dispute An obvious example of this is the Middle East This area where enhancement of the Soviet position is rightly perceived as a threat to the stability of the Oct 84 democratic institutions of the West is also experiencing much of the turmoil simply because of local conflicting cultural and religious factors The conflicts between the various Muslim and Christian ethnic groups which are responsible for most of the fighting are factors that have at times been lost in concerns about a threat to vital nat ional interests The danger in this situation and in similar ones is that the United States may delay its active involvement to resolve local difficulties until a crisis is reached where the global implications are very real and threatening U Another foreign policy issue resul t ing from our basic definition of national interests is how to clarify the degree to which our interests are being threat ened Al though general agreement may be reached concerning the basic definition of American national interests the very nature of a democracy dictates that there will be diversity of opinion when the threat potential of a particular situation is questioned Once consensus is reached that a real threat to our national interests exists a new consensus must be reached regarding the adequate response Again Tocqueville's observation that those qual i ties considered great about a democracy tend to be the least useful in international affairs seems to be quite relevant U In summary the impl icat ions of our nat ion I s foreign policy are not as bleak as might be concluded from several of the previous paragraphs Our objectives as defined by our nat ional interests have generally been met when those interests have been clearly art iculated to the world The Cuban Missile Crisis when a Soviet action was clearly declared to be opposed to our national interest shows the effectiveness of such a forthright react ion When other nat ions whether all ies or potential adversaries have been fully aware of the high priority the United States places on protecting developing democratic institutions our ability to exert a positive influence on other nations in the world has been enhanced When America has accepted the role as leader and at times protector of the Free World our ability to mediate and assist in disputes at various points around the world has been increased In short it is evident that certain uniquely democratic qualities might make it difficult for the United States to undertake and execute many great foreign policy initiatives - however it is just as clear that these same democratic qualities have allowed us to rise to a pinnacle of influence where we are looked to for such initiatives and leadership Our national interests diet ate that we cont inue to protec t the development of these democratic institutions in our nation and the world CRYPTOLOG Page 17 FeR eFFl8Ikb HSEl etlb'l ern 4009931 ----------- BR enrBiAf JSF SntH 86-36 j f I were asked to give one word to describe government writing that word would probably be humorless Not only are there no jokes in U government documents actually I agree there shaul d not be but there are no figures of speech no similes or metaphors and rarely is there anything in a government document which appeals to anything but your sense of duty to read it U This prob lem also exis ts in government computer program documentation It seems the more bland and serious the commentary of a computer program is I the more 1 ikel y it will be accepted by one's boss and the cryptologic community I contend that such an emphasis on seriousness may sometimes hamper the computer programming effort here at NSA not only blinds some people to sense but it can also hamper the creativity of many brilliant minds The freedom to program in the fashion you find readable and easy for you and the freedom to document your program in a way that might even make it enjoyable to use should not be denied If I am going to warn the prospective user of my program that a certain procedure is dangerous 1 should not be censured for displaying WHOA HOLD ON A MINUTE on the terminal It is much more likely to get someone' s at tent ion than a message such as POSSIBLE DATASET HAZARD -- CR to continue CTRL Y to halt U Let me fully expl ain such a drast ic statement During my tours as a Computer Systems Intern I met a programmer who had a novel for me concept of programming A program and indeed a computer itsel f are nothing more than tools As such they should be easy to use and techniques for designing better tools really must meet a single criterion Do they get the job done I believe this has been misconstrued as a concept and now the question that supervisors are asking is Does a program get the job done in the mos t direc t lackluster st andard st ructured way possible U The wrong that is inherent here is the neglect of creativity and motivational aids Too much emphasis on' structure stricture Oct 84 Unfortunately it is also more likely to get me a repr imand for the unprofess ional appearance of my programs When supervisors vehemently discourage a lighthearted approach to documentation of a program they make the documentation harder to read because of its dryness who would WANT to read it and thus impede the ease of use and the ability to pass the programs on to future generations of programmers D But I'm about jection of mitted at work and CRYPTOLOG something worse happens Hang to wax philosophical now The humor leads to a danger rarely NSA It is possible to take the cause for which we work Page 18 FQR QFFHJIi Jo liSE QNJo on readour too aCID FeR eFFfefAt HSrJ 6tlt 'l 4009931 seriously We can take it seriously enough to do our jobs properly using whatever techniques work well for us or we can impose a seriousness that stifles produces stress and makes an uneasy totalitarian uniformity settle glumly over all of us The serious struggle for peace which NSA fights bravely makes humor necessary Cert ainly we do not go through the traumatic experiences of a MASH unit or a combat battalion on the front lines but our work is hard stressful and often monotonous If a programmer responds to the pressure by writing a program that produces a chuckle while it does its job this is certainly no sin U Maybe a humorous line in a program or a programmer's affinity for exploring a computer's collection of games should en1ighten a supervisor rather than anger him or her It could well be that the occasional joke--or the occasional fight against Space Invaders--is a programmer's way of saying My work sometimes seems fruitless and once in a while I need to fool myself into thinking I'M WINNING The mental rewards that such humor can create may lead to a happier programmer and a more successful effort on his or her part U There's one more argument I haven't tackled ' en I was programming there wasn't any time to joke around We came in we did our job we went home I don't see any reason for all the nonsense some people get away with nowadays My only answer to this argument is to remind the reader that this is merely the expression of the urge we all have to keep things the way they are Certainly the people of the 16th century might envy us blilcause of all of our modern conveniences Still just because previous generations of programmers wrote their programs stodgily doesn't mean that future generations shouldn't try to improve their prodJ ict by adding a little levity U Certainly let's not overdo humor let's not overdo seriousness either But TO Cryptolog SUBJ User Friendly Writing P L I I Human Fac U I endorse tors in User Friendly Writing CRYPTOLOG Nost culprits will nat recognize Feb 84 themselves as guil ty Mast who do will not make the effort to change because they either don't care Or are lazy Mary's efforts are worthwhile for the couple of people who try to improve their writing style Personnel Summar ies are as fraught wi th being nat userfriendly as Mary's Research Summaries I wander if people realize that managerss read the former as exampl es of a person's writing abilities as well as for the content U Mary's article reminded me of two classic memos The text of one in tim numbered paragraphs said 1 Agency correspondence should be brief 2 This is an example It was signed by the Director VADN Noel Gaylor The text of the other on the subject of Utilization was Please stop utilizing r utilize and utilize use That one was from HG John Morrison Assistant Director for Production the forerunner of DDO I mislaid my copy of the first memo but still have a copy of the second as an example of clear writing P L Oct 84 86-36 CRYPTOLOG Page 19 FeR 8FFfSfAb 'lSI' 8tH5'I 86-36 ern 4009931 Several of the definitions in this puztle consist of the ticketing code trigraphs for various AmerIcan airports The answer to each of these is a maj OT' league sports tea m which might use this airport For the purposes of this pu z1e the lISFL is considered to be a major league L P L 86-36 Oct 84 CRYPTOLOG peR 8PP e he 9SB Page 20 8 86-36 aCID J l9R 9PPIElI 'd YSS etU 4009931 P L Oct 84 86-36 Pl-Oec 84-53-64342 CRYPTOLOG Page 21 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu