Armed Forces Security Agency

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The Armed Forces Security Agency ( AFSA ) was an American intelligence service. US Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson founded the AFSA with a confidential order on May 20, 1949. The AFSA was supposed to officially combine the cryptological activities of the existing Army Security Agency , Naval Security Group and Air Force Security Service. It played a special role in the Korean War .

Korean War

Right from the start, AFSA suffered two major setbacks. On the one hand, the AFSA Russian linguist William Weisband was suspected of espionage and, on the other hand, North Korea unexpectedly attacked the southern part of the Korean peninsula on May 25, 1950. The AFSA listening stations, as well as in Kamiseya in Japan , were only aimed at the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union , because North Korea was only of minor importance at the AFSA at that time. Washington first learned of the North Korean attack through a journalist from Seoul .

Additional eavesdropping staff was quickly requested, but there was a lack of translators, which is why a priest by the name of Harold Henry had to be used initially. Meanwhile, the North Korean units advanced rapidly via Seoul into the south of Korea and pushed the troops sent by the USA back to Pusan . However, since the North Korean leadership often communicated unencrypted, information from the AFSA was able to stop the advance.

The big question now was whether the People's Republic of China would intervene, since a team of Chinese linguists from AFSA collected information on the Chinese radio traffic that Soviet troops were being relocated to Korea. While General Douglas MacArthur , commander of the UN armed forces on the ground, compared President Harry S. Truman with a very low probability of a Chinese invasion in close collaboration with the North Korean and Russian armies, the AFSA specialists were able to place an order from the Chinese government at the same time Listen to 30,000 maps of Korea. On November 26, 1950, 30 Chinese divisions marched across the border into North Korea and pushed back both South Korean and American units. MacArthur was later held responsible for troops unprepared for this attack. The war ended on July 27, 1953 with the signing of an armistice agreement . The highest level of communications between the Chinese and North Koreans remained closed to the AFSA throughout the war.

Dissolution of AFSA

In December 1951, due to shortcomings in communications intelligence, CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith called on President Truman to conduct a thorough investigation into AFSA , Secretary of Defense Robert A. Lovett and Secretary of State Dean G. Acheson . Three days later, Truman ordered George Abbott Brownell to investigate. The idea of ​​a new secret service resulted from it.

On October 24, 1952, Lovett, David K. Bruce of the State Department, and Everett Gleason of the National Security Council appeared at the White House. President Truman issued the top secret order to disband AFSA and set up a new secret service. On November 4, 1952, the National Security Agency was established.

Web links

literature

  • Nathan Miller: Spying for America. The Hidden History of US. Intelligence . Paragon House, New York NY 1989, ISBN 1-557-78186-9 , (2nd print: Marlowe, New York NY 1997, ISBN 1-569-24721-8 ).
  • Norman Polmar, Thomas B. Allen: Spy Book. The Encyclopedia of Espionage . Random House International, New York NY 1997, ISBN 0-679-42514-4 .
  • Thomas Powers: The Man Who Kept the Secrets. Richard Helms and the CIA . Knopf, New York NY 1979, ISBN 0-394-50777-0 , ( Borzoi Book ).