The National Security Agency and the Cold War

In: Intelligence and national security, Band 16, Heft 1, S. 27-66

Abstract

This study focuses on NSA's 55-year intelligence collection effort against the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. All available evidence indicates that NSA's Sigint product was an essential means by which the US intelligence community was kept apprised of what was going on inside the Soviet Union, despite the fact that NSA was oftentimes unable to solve Russia's most important encryption systems. The ability to adapt & apply its superior technological wherewithal to overcome obstacles was a hallmark of NSA's Cold War efforts. When it could not crack the Soviet Union's most important encryption systems, NSA appears to have gone around the problem & exploited less important systems that proved to be important sources of intelligence information. NSA also worked closely with other branches of the US intelligence community, such as its work with the CIA & the FBI to obtain foreign cryptologic materials by clandestine means, its joint effort with the National Reconnaissance Office to field Sigint satellites, & its close collaboration with the US Navy to tap undersea communications cables. 3 Figures. Adapted from the source document.