The Reader of Gentlemen's Mail: Herbert O. Yardley and the Birth of American Codebreaking

About this book

One of the most colourful and controversial figures in American intelligence Herbert O. Yardley (1889-1958) gave America its best form of information but his fame rests more on his indiscretions than on his achievements. In this highly readable biography a premier historian of military intelligence tells Yardleys story and evaluates his impact on the American intelligence community. Yardley established the nations first codebreaking agency in 1917 and his solutions helped the United States win a major diplomatic victory at the 1921 disarmament conference. But when his unit was closed in 1929 because "gentlemen do not read each others mail" Yardley wrote a best-selling memoir that introduced - and disclosed - codemaking and codebreaking to the public. David Kahn describes the vicissitudes of Yardleys career including his work in China and Canada offers a capsule history of American intelligence up to World War I and gives a short course in classical codes and ciphers. He debunks the accusations that the publication of Yardleys book caused Japan to change its codes and ciphers and that Yardley traitorously sold his solutions to Japan.