Chapter 4. Creation of the Armed Forces Security Agency, 1949-1952

On 20 May 1949 Louis A. Johnson, secretary of defense, established a new defense agency, the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA). Johnson directed a merger of the COMINT processing activities of the Army and Navy and placed the new AFSA structure under the control and direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. AFSA's mission was to conduct all communications intelligence and communications security activities within the Department of Defense, except those performed by the military services. With AFSA, Johnson hoped to achieve a degree of unification of the services as well as "efficiency and economy" in the management of the cryptologic structure. He also sought to minimize the ...

Get The Quest for Cryptologic Centralization and the Establishment of NSA: 1940 - 1952 now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.