Code Warriors, Stephen Budiansky
Code Warriors, Stephen Budiansky
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Code Warriors
NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union

Author: Stephen Budiansky

Narrator: Mark Deakins

Unabridged: 14 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/14/2016

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

A sweeping, in-depth history of NSA, whose famous “cult of silence” has left the agency shrouded in mystery for decades
 
The National Security Agency was born out of the legendary codebreaking programs of World War II that cracked the famed Enigma machine and other German and Japanese codes, thereby turning the tide of Allied victory. In the postwar years, as the United States developed a new enemy in the Soviet Union, our intelligence community found itself targeting not soldiers on the battlefield, but suspected spies, foreign leaders, and even American citizens. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, NSA played a vital, often fraught and controversial role in the major events of the Cold War, from the Korean War to the Cuban Missile Crisis to Vietnam and beyond.

In Code Warriors, Stephen Budiansky—a longtime expert in cryptology—tells the fascinating story of how NSA came to be, from its roots in World War II through the fall of the Berlin Wall. Along the way, he guides us through the fascinating challenges faced by cryptanalysts, and how they broke some of the most complicated codes of the twentieth century. With access to new documents, Budiansky shows where the agency succeeded and failed during the Cold War, but his account also offers crucial perspective for assessing NSA today in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations. Budiansky shows how NSA’s obsession with recording every bit of data and decoding every signal is far from a new development; throughout its history the depth and breadth of the agency’s reach has resulted in both remarkable successes and destructive failures.

Featuring a series of appendixes that explain the technical details of Soviet codes and how they were broken, this is a rich and riveting history of the underbelly of the Cold War, and an essential and timely read for all who seek to understand the origins of the modern NSA. 

Includes a bonus PDF with relevant cipher schematics, maps, and more

About The Author

STEPHEN BUDIANSKY was the national security correspondent and foreign editor of U.S. News & World Report, Washington editor of Nature, and editor of World War II magazine. He is the author of six books of military and intelligence history, including Blackett’s War, a Washington Post Notable Book. He has served as a Congressional Fellow, he frequently lectures on intelligence and military history, and his articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Economist, and other publications. He is a member of the editorial board of Cryptologia, the leading academic journal of codes, codebreaking, and cryptologic history.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dave on July 05, 2016

Review originally posted at Book of Bogan I guess when reading any non-fiction work one needs to consider whether there are any hidden agendas going on behind the scenes, and evaluate the material being presented accordingly. I guess with a book about the classified world of the NSA one can only expe......more

Goodreads review by Igor on December 04, 2017

Another excellent book by Mr. Stephen. He is truly the finest (military) historian, and it shows. Stephen also happens to have a strong love for cryptography, and he continues his earlier works here. In fact, you should read his earlier works, which include Battle of Wits, the complete story of WWII......more

Goodreads review by John on October 16, 2022

The great triumph of breaking the enigma code is here. The brilliance of men like Alan Turing is on display. What comes next is some interesting takes on code breaking, some tit for tat one ups man ship between the US and the Soviets but what is most striking is the parallels with Edward Snowden. The......more

Goodreads review by Scott on July 22, 2019

Informative. If I had to do it again I would have read not listened to this. The narrator was good but there were a lot of times I wished I was reading so I could re-read a line and/or look something up on the net quickly.......more


Quotes

One of the Wall Street Journal's Top Ten Nonfiction Books of the year

Washington Post Notable Book

“This is a balanced, authoritative portrait of an institution in which brilliant innovation in mathematics, computing and technology has coexisted with gross invasions of societal privacy.”
Nature 

“Budiansky ably guides readers through the technical details of code breaking and the bureaucratic wrangling that so often bedevils intelligence work.” —Foreign Affairs
 
“Admirable.... The NSA became a vast and powerful intelligence agency in the digital age. This book illuminates the early years.” —Washington Post
 
“An exciting...account of the National Security Agency’s efforts to discover the Soviet Union’s secrets.” —Wall Street Journal
 
“The dysfunctions and overreach of the total surveillance state were present at its birth, according to this engrossing history of the National Security Administration. Journalist Budiansky traces the development of American signals intelligence... [and] is lucid in describing the science and art of breaking complex ciphers, which helped drive advances in electronics and computing… Budiansky leavens the history and technology with colorful profiles of crytographers and spies; the results is a lively account of how today’s information controversies emerged.”
Publishers Weekly

“A skillful history of America's World War II code-breaking and the rise of the National Security Agency.”Kirkus