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00:06Tonight on Secrets Declassified, cracking secret codes that win battles and save lives.
00:13From the Pacific, where a U.S. code breaker races to prevent another Pearl Harbor.
00:18This code is just about impossible to break.
00:21To Vietnam, where a U.S. airman's escape route is plotted with clues from an unusual source.
00:27They're going to use the layout of his favorite golf courses as a code.
00:32And to a housewife in Virginia that reveals her husband is selling top secret codes to the enemy.
00:39Tucked away in a closet is a grocery bag stuffed with classified Navy documents.
00:45These are the astonishing and sometimes terrible things done by governments and the people who work for them.
00:51It's time to bring them to light.
01:00The first hole at Tucson National Golf Course is 430 yards and bends to the left.
01:07The fourth at Abilene Country Club is 195 yards.
01:11They might sound like trivial facts.
01:14But for one U.S. airman shot down behind enemy lines in Vietnam, they're the difference between life and death.
01:23On Good Friday, 1972, the North Vietnamese launched a massive surprise assault into South Vietnam.
01:30The U.S. Air Force scrambles to launch a series of tactical airstrikes to try and contain this invasion.
01:37And many airmen who've been looking forward to some leave suddenly find themselves back on active duty.
01:43One of the unlucky men recalled from R&R is 53-year-old Gene Hambleton.
01:49Gene Hambleton is a navigator and an electronics specialist in the U.S. Air Force.
01:55He seems old to still be flying combat missions.
01:58But it's his expertise in jamming enemy radar that puts him back into the cockpit heading to North Vietnam.
02:04Just minutes into his mission, his airplane is struck, and he finds himself having to parachute into enemy territory.
02:13For the U.S. military, Hambleton isn't just another man down.
02:18Because of his seniority, Hambleton has an intimate knowledge of top secret strategic air command operations.
02:25He cannot be allowed to fall into enemy hands.
02:29The race is on to find Hambleton before the enemy does.
02:34The Air Force manages to make radio contact with Hambleton, and they launch one air evac after another.
02:41But the rescue choppers keep getting shot down.
02:45Then the Navy SEALs propose a different kind of rescue.
02:49Their plan is to covertly sail up the Muzang River and pluck Hambleton from an extraction point two miles away
02:57from his current location.
02:59There's one big problem.
03:01The survival radio that Hambleton has allows him to communicate with American forces, but it also allows the enemy to
03:07listen in on those transmissions.
03:09They're going to need a secret code which only Hambleton can understand.
03:14That's a lot easier said than done.
03:17The rescuers reach out to Hambleton's squadron to find things out about his personal life so they can come up
03:24with a coded language that he would understand and the enemy wouldn't.
03:28They discover that Hambleton is an avid golfer.
03:32But not only that, he has freakishly encyclopedic knowledge about the world's most renowned golf courses.
03:39Maybe they can encode a route to the extraction point using the layout of his favorite golf courses as a
03:48code.
03:54The rescue team starts overlaying golf course plans over aerial reconnaissance photos and they start plotting a route to the
04:03extraction point across farmland that also stays away from roads and enemy positions.
04:09And they break that plan down into nine stages.
04:14Each of those stages corresponds to the individual length and bearing of a hole from an iconic golf course.
04:23Forget Whistling Straits, Augusta, or the Ocean Course.
04:27This will be the toughest round of golf anyone has ever played.
04:32On April 10th, Hambleton's radio crackles to light.
04:36The voice on the other end belongs to Air Force Captain Harold Icke.
04:41Hambleton's life depends on him being able to decode what he hears next.
04:46Icke tells him, you're going to play nine holes and you're going to get in the Suwannee.
04:51The round starts at number one at Tucson National.
04:54Now, at first, Hambleton's totally confused, as would be any of the North Vietnamese that are listening in.
05:01But then Hambleton realizes that message is so strange, it must be a code.
05:07The Suwannee is a river in the U.S., so he figures they must be giving him coded directions to
05:13get to a nearby river.
05:16Hambleton racks his brains trying to remember everything he can about the course at Tucson.
05:21The first hole is 430 yards running southeast.
05:25Suddenly, he realizes that's his first direction.
05:29Hambleton can hear enemy activity all around, so he waits until the cover of nightfall before teeing off.
05:36As he starts moving, it's tough going for Hambleton.
05:40He has to count his strides, moving through darkness, navigating through potential minefields, and avoiding enemy soldiers.
05:48After 40 minutes, he makes it to the first hole.
05:52That's one hole down, eight more to go.
05:55He makes it through four holes before dawn breaks, when he takes cover again.
06:01Next evening, he moves on to hole five, and this one comes with a serious hazard.
06:06The fifth hole is the number four at Abilene Country Club, where Hambleton once hit a hole in one.
06:12This time, it's not so easy. The route takes him right through the outskirts of a Vietnamese village.
06:18As he's tiptoeing through this village, suddenly, from around a building, a man leaps out at him, brandishing a blade.
06:25Instinct takes over, and Hambleton pulls out his own knife, plunging it into his attacker, before escaping onward into the
06:31jungle.
06:31Now, his next round is against the clock, because once the body is discovered, the North Vietnamese will be hot
06:39on his trail.
06:41Over the final four holes, Hambleton grows weaker and weaker.
06:45After three days, Hambleton makes it to the ninth and final hole.
06:50He locates his extraction point and waits.
06:53It feels like his ordeal is nearly over.
06:57Then, Hambleton's heart sinks.
06:59He spots a sandpan boat heading upriver towards him, with a Vietnamese man on the prowl, holding an AK-47.
07:07Days of surviving in the jungle, only to get caught now.
07:11But then someone else emerges from the boat.
07:14It's an American.
07:15It's the Navy SEAL extraction team.
07:18News of Hambleton's rescue hits the headlines.
07:21But something crucial is missing.
07:24All mention of the Navy's clever code has been scrubbed from the stories.
07:29The secret remains locked away for nearly a decade, until 1980, when Hambleton finally reveals the story of his amazing
07:37escape.
07:39And the world hears of one of the U.S. military's most audacious codes.
07:46Improvising a code to rescue a man behind enemy lines is one thing.
07:50But during World War II, the U.S. military needs something that can save thousands and help turn the tide
07:57of the war.
07:58So they turn to an unlikely source.
08:01An ancient Native American language.
08:07After months of naval warfare, the U.S. military is prepping to engage the Japanese on land for the first
08:13time.
08:14And their plan is to island hop their way across the Pacific, towards the Japanese mainland.
08:19Radio communication will play a pivotal role in the campaign.
08:24But it has a downside.
08:25In the chaos of battle, there is no quick way to encrypt or decrypt battlefield commands.
08:32So Japanese forces will be able to hear everything the U.S. is saying.
08:37In 1942, an engineer raised in a remote region of Arizona has an idea which could change all that.
08:44His name is Philip Johnston.
08:47Philip Johnston was actually raised by missionaries on a Navajo reservation.
08:52And as such, he learned the Navajo language.
08:55Johnston recommends to the U.S. Army using Navajo speakers as code talkers,
09:01communicating battlefield orders in real time before the Japanese can decipher them.
09:06It's estimated that less than 30 non-Navajo speak the language in 1942,
09:11making the odds of a Japanese soldier being able to understand Navajo virtually zero.
09:16When the U.S. military hears about Johnston's idea, they take notice.
09:21He's asked to come in and put his idea to the test.
09:24In February 1942, Johnston assembles four Navajo men at Camp Elliott in San Diego.
09:31Under the scrutiny of the top brass, the Navajos sit in separate offices
09:36and are made to relay half a dozen simple messages to each other via telephone.
09:41The Navajo test subjects perform flawlessly.
09:44The messages are relayed far faster than they could have been encoded and decoded,
09:48and there's not a single mistake among them.
09:50Johnston's big idea gets the green light.
09:53Now he needs to scale it up for battle.
09:57Hundreds of Navajo volunteer for service,
10:00and they're rapidly given basic military training.
10:03But pretty soon, a problem arises.
10:06The Navajo language is almost a thousand years old,
10:09but this language doesn't contain any words for modern warfare.
10:13To get around the missing words,
10:15Johnston proposes using everyday words that have military meanings.
10:19So, for example, whale became the word that was used for battleships.
10:24In November 1942, the first 13 Navajo code talkers are deployed to the Pacific.
10:31It's finally time to put Johnston's idea to the ultimate test,
10:34in the heat of battle.
10:37Chester Ness and Roy Begay are two of the first Navajo code talkers
10:42who arrive in Guadalcanal, and they have a literal trial by fire.
10:47On the 7th of November, Chester and Roy's platoon comes under attack
10:51as they try to take an airfield.
10:52They are pinned down.
10:54A runner comes with an urgent message to call in an artillery strike.
10:58While bullets and mortar rounds whiz overhead,
11:01Chester begins transmitting the message to call in the artillery strike
11:05in his native language of Navajo.
11:08Seconds later, artillery buzz overhead,
11:12neutralizing the Japanese machine gun nest holding them down.
11:17The entire message took just 20 seconds to send and receive.
11:21If sent using standard military code, it would have taken 30 minutes,
11:26by which time Roy and Chester's company would have been annihilated.
11:31Roy and Chester's commanding general contacts his superiors,
11:35saying, this Navajo code is terrific.
11:38The enemy never understood it.
11:40We don't understand it either, but it works.
11:43Send us more Navajos.
11:45After the arrival of the Navajo code talkers,
11:48the American forces go on to win the Battle of Guadalcanal.
11:51It's a decisive point in the fighting in the Southwest Pacific.
11:55The Navajo code talkers continue to play a critical role,
11:59including in pivotal action at Iwo Jima and Bougainville.
12:04And the Japanese never managed to figure out their ancient language.
12:08After the war is over, code talkers don't get the official recognition they deserve.
12:13While part of that is due to race relations at the time,
12:16a larger part is due to the oath that the code talkers took,
12:20promising to keep their operations secret in case they were ever called upon in time of need again.
12:25Only in 1968 is the service record of the code talkers declassified.
12:32Then, in 2008, President George W. Bush signs the code talkers' recognition act,
12:38and the hidden heroes of the Pacific War are finally given their due.
12:46After Pearl Harbor, a U.S. codebreaker discovers Japan is planning an even more devastating attack,
12:52only he doesn't know where.
12:54If he can't crack the Japanese cipher,
12:57then the whole U.S. Pacific fleet could be destroyed.
13:02On December 7, 1941,
13:05the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor,
13:10claiming the lives of over 2,400 Americans.
13:14Pearl Harbor ranks with 9-11
13:17as the worst intelligence failure in American history.
13:24Captain Joseph Rochefort is the head of the codebreaking unit at Pearl Harbor.
13:29Rochefort vows to make sure the U.S. will never be ambushed like this again.
13:34In the aftermath of the attack,
13:36Rochefort and his team are tasked with cracking the notorious Japanese code, JN-25.
13:42The code uses a huge codebook to translate common words and phrases
13:46into individual five-digit numbers.
13:49From there, there's an additive codebook
13:51that then scrambles those numbers yet again.
13:55This dual system makes it just about impossible to break.
14:00Rochefort and his team begin studying the mass of Japanese communications
14:04from the days leading up to Pearl Harbor.
14:07Rochefort discovers that in the rush before Pearl Harbor,
14:11the Japanese coders got careless.
14:13They began transmitting codes using an additive book
14:16that had already been partially cracked by the U.S.
14:20This allows Rochefort to spot something else.
14:23It seems that when the Japanese are discussing target locations,
14:26they use the prefix A to represent U.S. interests in the Pacific.
14:31A-I seems to stand for Oahu.
14:33A-H is Hawaii.
14:35A-K, Pearl Harbor.
14:37Soon after Rochefort has discovered these two-letter codes,
14:41a fresh set of intercepts arrive,
14:43mentioning a fourth two-letter code location.
14:46Japanese air commanders are inquiring about wind speed
14:49for an upcoming attack on AF.
14:54What the Americans don't want is to be caught in some kind of trap.
14:59It's so very important to know exactly where AF is.
15:04Rochefort is reading the messages over and over,
15:08and then it hits him.
15:09He looks at who the message was sent to and who it wasn't sent to,
15:14and Rochefort notices that there was one military branch
15:17that didn't receive the message, submarine commanders.
15:21If submarines are not included,
15:23this attack is likely to be an air attack,
15:26meaning AF needs to be within range of the Japanese base
15:29on the Marshall Islands,
15:30where their aircraft carriers are harbored.
15:33That narrows down AF to only a few possible locations.
15:36By process of elimination,
15:38he knows the attack can't be on the Hawaiian Islands
15:41because they have a code name assigned to them.
15:43And so, narrowing it down,
15:45he knows that AF has to indicate the American bases on Midway.
15:51Rochefort believes he's cracked the code
15:53and knows where the attack will happen,
15:55but it all counts for nothing if he can't convince his commanders.
15:58The stakes couldn't be higher.
16:01It's crucial that the Americans hold on to Midway
16:03after the loss has already suffered at Pearl Harbor.
16:05To lose Midway at this point would kind of be like the one-two punch
16:09that really makes the knockout.
16:11Rochefort has this sense that AF is Midway,
16:16but he can't prove it.
16:17And there's no way that he is going to advise Admiral Nimitz,
16:22who commanded the Pacific Fleet,
16:24to send out America's remaining carriers
16:27to ambush the Japanese on that kind of hunch.
16:32So, he comes up with a plan.
16:35Rochefort arranges for Midway's garrison commander
16:37to send a fake message saying that they're low on fresh water.
16:40Now, if the message is sent uncoded,
16:42the Japanese will immediately realize it's fake.
16:44So, Rochefort gets the message sent using a U.S. cipher
16:48that he knows the Japanese have already cracked.
16:51Then Rochefort waits.
16:5448 hours later, he gets the response he was banking on.
16:58Rochefort's team decodes a message
17:00about the imminent attack on AF,
17:02and it specifically states AF is low on water.
17:06This is the clincher Admiral Nimitz needs.
17:09AF is Midway.
17:11This is the kind of intelligence that commanders dream of.
17:15Nimitz understood that if he got it right,
17:18the Japanese Pacific Fleet would be devastated.
17:23Somebody was headed for an ambush.
17:26Would it be the Americans or the Japanese?
17:29Wasting no time, Adderall Nimitz sends three aircraft carriers
17:33with 117 aircraft to await the Japanese.
17:37On June the 4th, 1942,
17:40they catch the Japanese fleet entirely by surprise.
17:44The Battle of Midway is a resounding naval victory
17:48for the United States.
17:49The United States sends to the bottom of the Pacific
17:53four Japanese aircraft carriers,
17:58thus neutralizing the Japanese threat in the Pacific.
18:03Midway is such an incredible triumph
18:06that everyone wants a piece of the glory.
18:09And credit for cracking JN-25 is ultimately claimed
18:12by the director of naval intelligence,
18:14and Rochefort's role is basically forgotten from history.
18:19Only in 1985, when a book is published by a former colleague,
18:24is Rochefort finally revealed as the unsung hero
18:27who stopped a second Pearl Harbor.
18:31The following year, he is posthumously awarded
18:35the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.
18:40When a U.S. POW in North Vietnam's Hanoi Hilton
18:43wants to reveal to the world that he's being tortured,
18:46he does it without his captors noticing.
18:49Blink, and you'll miss it.
18:56Commander Jeremiah Denton is an experienced
18:59and respected career aviator in the U.S. Navy.
19:03In 1965, he's flying a bombing mission
19:06when his airplane is struck by anti-aircraft fire.
19:10Denton manages to bail out and parachute to safety,
19:13but he's quickly captured by Vietnamese forces
19:15who take him to the infamous prison, Huala Lhue.
19:18The prison is better known among U.S. POWs
19:22by its nickname, the Hanoi Hilton.
19:25But there's nothing luxurious
19:26about the conditions Denton checks into.
19:29Huala Lhue is a horrid situation
19:31for the aviators that are held there.
19:33The Vietnamese classify American aviators as air pirates,
19:37and they claim that they are not protected
19:39by the Geneva Convention.
19:41They're kept in a prison facility
19:43where they're often subjected
19:45to harsh interrogation and torture.
19:47They're not allowed to communicate with one another,
19:50and any attempt to speak to a fellow prisoner
19:52will probably result in a pretty nasty beating.
19:56Denton understands keeping his sanity intact
19:59relies on one thing.
20:01He must find a way to connect with his fellow inmates.
20:05Denton discovers that the POWs
20:08have already found a way to communicate
20:09without using spoken words.
20:11They pass messages by tapping on their cell walls
20:14in Morse code.
20:16Through their secret communications,
20:18Denton is able to incite a campaign of resistance,
20:21but the guards identify Denton as the ringleader.
20:24He is beaten and brutally tortured.
20:27In October 1967,
20:30Denton is moved to another prison unit
20:32reserved for the inmates deemed to be troublemakers.
20:34This one has the less ironic nickname,
20:38Alcatraz.
20:39Here, the tap code won't work.
20:42Alcatraz is a much harsher system,
20:44and the guards will inflict punishment
20:47on any individual who appears
20:48to be communicating via Morse code
20:51or any other form of encryption system.
20:55Denton is desperate to communicate
20:57with any of the other POWs there,
20:59but he's terrified of any more torture.
21:01So Denton starts devising an entirely new code
21:04based on the sounds he hears all around him
21:07and that the guards would never think twice about,
21:09coughs and sniffs.
21:11Due to the terrible conditions,
21:13practically all the inmates
21:14have some sort of respiratory problem.
21:16So coughs and sniffs will easily fall under the cover
21:19of the current environmental conditions.
21:23With this new code,
21:25a single cough means one,
21:28a cough or a sniff twice means two,
21:31and so forth and so on.
21:34Using a standard five-by-five grid
21:36where each letter is designated
21:39two numbers between one and five,
21:41the airmen are able to spell out
21:43full messages to each other
21:45without anyone ever detecting it.
21:48But Denton wants to speak to more
21:50than his fellow prisoners.
21:52What he dreams of is to be able
21:54to tell the outside world
21:56of the brutal conditions
21:57being endured by POWs.
22:00One time, out of the blue,
22:03Denton got an incredible opportunity.
22:05After nearly 10 months of captivity,
22:08the guards informed Denton
22:09that the following day
22:10he is to be interviewed
22:11in front of a global audience.
22:13Denton is told that this media appearance
22:16is very important,
22:17and he is warned
22:18to be on his best behavior.
22:20It's entirely likely
22:21that if he doesn't comply,
22:22he'll be killed.
22:25How can he tell the world
22:26what's happening
22:27without his captors finding out?
22:30Denton's solution is ingenious
22:32and so sensitive
22:33it remains secret for years to come.
22:36Morning comes,
22:38and Denton is taken out of his cell,
22:40blindfolded,
22:41and driven away from the prison.
22:44He finds himself
22:46in a nicely appointed room
22:47sitting in front
22:48of a Japanese journalist
22:49and crew.
22:51Denton has no idea
22:52how he can subvert this interview,
22:54but then it's action.
22:56The lights go on,
22:57and he's temporarily blinded,
22:59and he squints and blinks
23:01to try to avert the light
23:02from his eyes,
23:03and then the idea comes to him.
23:06I don't know what is happening.
23:10Denton is answering the questions.
23:12Denton's in the way
23:14that his captors want him to.
23:15Adequate food
23:17and adequate clothing.
23:20But his eyes
23:21are telling
23:22a completely different story.
23:25Denton's blinking
23:26is actually spelling out
23:28a message in Morse code.
23:31The message
23:33spells out one word.
23:35Torture.
23:37In plain sight,
23:39with the world watching,
23:40Denton spells out torture.
23:42In Morse code.
23:43Again and again.
23:46A single word
23:47that says it all.
23:48The North Vietnamese
23:49don't notice
23:50what Denton's up to,
23:52and the broadcast
23:52is actually transmitted worldwide.
23:55This is big news.
23:57It's the first indication
23:59that the United States has
24:01that North Vietnam
24:02is violating
24:04the Geneva Convention.
24:06Denton has no idea
24:08if his message
24:08has been heard.
24:10The U.S. authorities
24:11never make public
24:12his blink code,
24:13fearful that it would lead
24:14to more extreme consequences
24:15like more beatings
24:17or even execution.
24:18He doesn't find out
24:19that his code
24:20was actually received
24:21until 1973
24:23when he's finally released.
24:25A year later,
24:26Denton is awarded
24:27the Navy Cross
24:28for his conduct
24:30during captivity.
24:31But the full story
24:33of his ordeal
24:33remains unknown
24:35until 1975
24:37when he publishes
24:38his memoir,
24:39When Hell Was in Session.
24:43And now the world
24:44finally discovers
24:45the story
24:46of Denton's
24:47courageous blinking code.
24:51What if I told you
24:53that a key part
24:53of beating the Nazis'
24:55unbreakable Enigma code
24:56was a bunch of
24:57Ohio factory workers
24:59who made cash registers?
25:00It's a wartime secret
25:02so sensitive
25:03that it remains under wraps
25:05for more than 50 years.
25:11In the early 1940s,
25:13it's open season
25:13in the North Atlantic
25:14for Nazi submarine wolf packs.
25:16The German Navy
25:17is sinking vast numbers
25:19of Allied ships.
25:21From the summer of 1940
25:22into the spring of 1941,
25:25hundreds of Allied ships
25:26are sent to the bottom
25:27of the Atlantic
25:28by German U-boats.
25:30It's what the U-boat crews
25:31gloatingly call
25:33the happy time.
25:34The secret weapon
25:36behind all this
25:37is the Enigma device,
25:39a code machine
25:41the Nazis use
25:42to encrypt orders
25:43to their submarine fleet.
25:44If the Allies
25:45are to escape
25:46the U-boat attacks,
25:47this code needs breaking.
25:50But that's no easy task.
25:52The Enigma machine
25:53is a typewriter-like device
25:55that's used
25:56to encrypt messages
25:58and then unencrypt them
25:59so they can be read normally.
26:01For the process to work,
26:03both the sending
26:04and receiving Enigma machine
26:06have three rotors
26:07that have to be set
26:08to the same configurations
26:09and those are determined
26:11by using the key
26:12from a code book.
26:14Unless you have a code book
26:16and the setting sheets,
26:18it is impossible
26:19to solve this
26:21by simple trial and error.
26:23Then in 1941,
26:25the British have
26:26a major stroke of luck.
26:27Their Navy captures
26:28an enemy U-boat
26:29with an intact Enigma machine
26:32plus code books.
26:34Now they're able
26:35to use their own
26:36decryption device,
26:37which they call
26:38the bomb.
26:40Overnight,
26:41they can now listen
26:42to encrypted
26:43German communications.
26:45U-boat patrols
26:45are tracked.
26:46Thousands of lives
26:47are saved.
26:48But nine months later,
26:50the German Navy decides
26:52to ramp up their security.
26:54In February of 1942,
26:56the Germans quietly roll out
26:58a new version
26:59of the Enigma machine
27:00that has now
27:01a new fourth rotor.
27:03Adding that single extra dial
27:05results in the number
27:07of extra settings
27:08possible for encrypting
27:09the codes
27:09increasing exponentially.
27:11There are now
27:1292 septillion different ways
27:15to set up
27:16a German four-rotor
27:18naval Enigma machine.
27:20It's a complete disaster
27:21for the Allies.
27:22They are completely
27:24locked out of German
27:25naval encrypted communications.
27:28U-boats,
27:29basically go on
27:30the rampage again.
27:33The British need
27:34a much faster
27:35version of the bomb.
27:37And that means
27:38not having to design
27:39a mechanical decryption device,
27:40but an electronic one.
27:43The British are struggling
27:44to produce these machines,
27:45so they turn to the United States
27:47and they ask for assistance.
27:50Washington starts looking
27:51for someone to build
27:52this new improved bomb.
27:54They need a visionary engineer
27:56with a team
27:57of electronics experts
27:59in a vast manufacturing space.
28:02They find all three
28:04in Dayton, Ohio,
28:05at the National Cash Register Company,
28:07or NCR.
28:10The NCR is a world leader
28:12in electronics,
28:13and they just invented
28:14the world's first electronic
28:16accounting machine
28:17that runs
28:17at a million pulses per second,
28:20a megahertz.
28:22NCR has an enormous
28:24production facility
28:25in Dayton.
28:26They're led by
28:27Joseph Desch,
28:28an engineer
28:29who has
28:30an intrinsic grasp
28:31of the potential
28:33of electronics.
28:35Desch designs a way
28:36of scaling up
28:37the British bomb,
28:38utilizing the might
28:39of American engineering.
28:41The biggest issue
28:42is it comes
28:43with an incredible
28:44price tag,
28:45around $4 million
28:47each.
28:48It also weighs
28:49over two and a half tons,
28:51so needs to be built
28:52in a special room
28:54of the NCR,
28:55with one of the first
28:56steel-reinforced
28:57concrete floors
28:58in the United States.
29:00The Navy signs off
29:02on the costs,
29:03and Desch's team
29:04gets building.
29:05The process is relentless,
29:06with the team
29:07working seven days a week.
29:10Finally,
29:11on May 28, 1943,
29:13after 11 long months,
29:15Desch's supersized bomb
29:17gets its first test.
29:20Inside the NCR,
29:22Desch switches
29:23on the machine,
29:23and he feeds it
29:25an Enigma M4 message.
29:27The machine starts up.
29:30It begins to whine.
29:33Then the machine stops.
29:34It seems like
29:35an electrical short circuit,
29:37and the teams
29:38are deflated.
29:38But suddenly,
29:39it springs back to life.
29:41And incredibly,
29:42the machine scores a hit.
29:44It prints out
29:45the precise key
29:46used to encipher
29:48the message.
29:49They then use that key
29:51to set the rotors
29:52on their own
29:53Enigma machine.
29:54They can then decipher
29:55the code
29:56and reveal
29:58the original message.
30:00Desch has done it.
30:01He sends the results
30:03direct to the codebreakers
30:04in Washington.
30:06Soon, Desch's machines
30:08are being put to work
30:09decrypting German messages.
30:11The Americans
30:12and the British
30:13are actually decrypting
30:14Enigma messages
30:15faster than the German
30:17recipients are.
30:18After NCR
30:20and its decryption machines
30:21start going into action,
30:23the tide turns
30:24against the German
30:25U-boat commanders.
30:26It stops being
30:27a happy time
30:28and it starts becoming
30:29a Nazi hunting time.
30:33For over 50 years,
30:35the Dayton codebreakers'
30:36contribution
30:36to breaking Enigma
30:38remains classified.
30:40Desch and the women
30:41who made the U.S. bomb
30:42take their secrets
30:44to the grave.
30:47Only in 1995,
30:50after a campaign
30:50by Desch's daughter,
30:52is their role
30:53finally acknowledged.
30:57It's 1968.
30:59Someone is selling
31:00the U.S. Navy's
31:01top secrets
31:02to the Soviets.
31:03And the Navy brass
31:04have no idea
31:05it's even happening.
31:06When the truth
31:07is finally revealed
31:08after two decades,
31:09it's not by the FBI
31:11or the CIA.
31:12It's by a disgruntled spouse.
31:20Senior U.S. naval officials
31:22are a bit troubled.
31:24Time and again,
31:25their opponents
31:25seem to gain
31:26the upper hand on them
31:28and anticipate their moves
31:29with almost clairvoyant skill.
31:32From tracking their subs
31:34in the Atlantic
31:35to eventually dodging
31:36bombing raids in Vietnam,
31:38they sense that
31:39something is up.
31:42The U.S. has no idea
31:44how this is happening.
31:45It's as if the USSR
31:46has cracked U.S. naval codes.
31:49To U.S. commanders,
31:51that's a ludicrous suggestion.
31:53At this time,
31:55the U.S. Navy uses
31:56one of the world's
31:57most advanced coding machines,
31:59known as the KW-7.
32:00It is one of the first
32:02fully electronic coding machines,
32:04faster and more secure
32:06than ever before.
32:07In order to break this code,
32:09the enemy would have to
32:10get their hands
32:10on a KW-7 machine
32:12and have access
32:13to the key cards
32:14that are necessary
32:15to operate it.
32:16Those key cards, however,
32:18are changed out regularly,
32:20usually about once a month.
32:21And that means that
32:22even if the Soviets
32:23get their hands on a machine,
32:25well, they still have to have
32:26the latest key card
32:27in order to figure out
32:28what a coding message says.
32:30The Soviets have got their hands
32:32on some KW-7s
32:34after a U.S. ship
32:35was captured in North Korea.
32:36But because the captured machines
32:38didn't have key cards with them,
32:40the U.S. Navy believed
32:41that their code was still secure.
32:43A series of security breaches follow.
32:45But the Navy is sure
32:47that this is just
32:47a run of bad luck.
32:50It's not just bad luck.
32:51It's something far worse.
32:53Their top secret code
32:55is no longer secret.
32:56The truth is first discovered
32:58not by a cryptography specialist,
33:00but by a housewife in Virginia.
33:03Barbara Walker is the wife
33:05of John Walker,
33:06a radio man in the U.S. Navy.
33:08From the outside,
33:09they have a happy life
33:10with four kids.
33:11They'd had money troubles before,
33:13but now they live
33:14a very comfortable life,
33:16a fact she puts down
33:17to John's rising career.
33:19One day, Barbara Walker
33:21comes across something strange.
33:23Tucked away in a closet
33:24is a grocery bag
33:26stuffed with classified
33:27Navy documents,
33:29and they've been hidden
33:30away there by John.
33:32When confronted,
33:34Walker comes clean.
33:35He's been stealing
33:36top secret information
33:38and passing it to the Soviets
33:39in exchange
33:40for millions of dollars.
33:42Among John Walker's
33:43responsibilities
33:44is taking care
33:45of these KW-7 cards.
33:46It's his duty
33:48and responsibility
33:49to destroy the old ones
33:50and to safeguard the new ones.
33:52But instead of doing that,
33:54he's sending them
33:55to the Soviets.
33:56Once they have the key cards,
33:59the Soviets can decode
34:00the American messages
34:01that they recorded
34:02over the previous month.
34:04The Soviets then
34:05tunnel their way
34:06into at least
34:07a million encrypted
34:08naval messages.
34:10It's the most damaging
34:11code breach
34:12in U.S. history,
34:13and the Americans
34:14don't even know
34:15it's happening.
34:16For over 10 years,
34:18John is able
34:19to intimidate Barbara
34:20into keeping his secret.
34:22Barbara is terrified
34:23of her husband's temper,
34:25and she fears
34:26that if she goes
34:27to the authorities,
34:28she might lose her kids.
34:29Over the years,
34:31John secretly drags
34:32more family members
34:33into his twisted spy world,
34:35including one of
34:37their adult sons.
34:38Then, in 1984,
34:40Barbara finally breaks
34:41John's hold over her.
34:44Barbara learns that
34:45John recently attempted
34:46to pull their daughter in.
34:48Even though the daughter refused,
34:51she picks up the phone
34:52and calls the FBI.
34:55She tells them
34:56about the drops,
34:57what he's doing,
34:58how this all works.
34:59As they listen,
35:01they see the KGB patterns
35:03at play.
35:04Furthermore,
35:05as they investigate Walker,
35:07it becomes clear
35:08that he has a little more cash
35:09than one should
35:10for his station,
35:11and he's taking
35:12some rather odd trips
35:13at odd times.
35:15But they need more
35:16than just circumstantial evidence,
35:18so they attempt
35:19to catch John
35:20in the act.
35:22In May 1985,
35:25the FBI trails Walker
35:26to a wooded area
35:27near Washington, D.C.,
35:29and watches him
35:30hide a package
35:31before leaving.
35:32A classic dead drop.
35:33Agents move in
35:34and retrieve the documents.
35:36It's a gold mine.
35:38Inside, they find
35:40129 pages
35:41of classified material.
35:43John is arrested
35:44at his hotel room
35:45just a few hours later.
35:49Faced with the prospect
35:50of life in prison,
35:52Walker does the only thing
35:53he can.
35:53He makes a deal.
35:55In exchange
35:56for his full confession,
35:58he negotiates
35:58a more lenient sentence
36:00for his son,
36:01Michael.
36:02John Walker
36:03is sentenced
36:04to life in prison.
36:07For the Russians,
36:08this has been
36:08a brilliantly simple strategy.
36:10Their code breakers
36:11haven't had to crack anything.
36:12All they had to do
36:13is crack open
36:14the checkbook.
36:15The story explodes
36:17across the media,
36:18along with Walker's
36:19stinging comment
36:20that Kmart
36:21has better security
36:22than the Navy.
36:24When the story
36:26of this domestic spy ring
36:27goes public,
36:28it reveals huge flaws
36:30in U.S. naval security,
36:33leading to the implementation
36:35of new security measures
36:37to ensure this
36:38won't happen again.
36:42It's New York
36:43in 1919.
36:45A poker prodigy
36:46is lying in bed.
36:48He's about to doze off
36:49when he's struck
36:50by a flash of inspiration,
36:52one that will help him
36:53crack a notoriously
36:54difficult Japanese code.
36:59In the aftermath
37:00of World War I,
37:01American leaders
37:02have learned
37:03a hard lesson.
37:04Information is power.
37:06So if you can read
37:07other nations' codes,
37:09you can know
37:10what your enemies
37:11and even your friends
37:13are really thinking.
37:15Even in peacetime,
37:16Washington doesn't want
37:17to rely on
37:18what other governments
37:19choose to tell them.
37:21So they decide
37:22to start cracking
37:23other countries' codes.
37:25The U.S. turns
37:26to an unlikely establishment
37:28that publishes puzzle books
37:29from a nondescript brownstone
37:31in New York City.
37:33It's the secret headquarters
37:34of the U.S.'s most advanced
37:36code-breaking operation
37:37called the Cypher Bureau,
37:40an outfit so secret
37:41that it doesn't even
37:42officially exist,
37:43essentially a U.S. government
37:45black op.
37:48The young man who runs this
37:49is Herbert Yardley,
37:50a prodigy with a flair
37:52for numbers and puzzles.
37:53In fact, he funded his education
37:55through poker winnings.
37:58Working for the State Department,
38:00he secretly cracked
38:01a coded message
38:02meant only for the president
38:03in just two hours.
38:05From there, Yardley's skills
38:07land him his own gig,
38:09running the secret
38:10code-breaking team
38:11for the U.S. government
38:12under its cover
38:13as a puzzle publisher.
38:17Yardley and his Cypher Bureau
38:19break all kinds of codes
38:21for the U.S. government
38:22around 20 countries
38:24have their messages cracked
38:25by Yardley's outfit.
38:28The Cypher Bureau's
38:30most fiendish challenge
38:31is cracking Japanese
38:33coded telegrams.
38:34These are concerned
38:36with Japanese
38:37and U.S. negotiations
38:38over a naval arms
38:40limitation treaty.
38:43Yardley's Cypher Bureau
38:45is given a collection
38:46of diplomatic cables
38:47from Japan to decode,
38:48and this is a monumental challenge
38:50because even before
38:51you consider any encryption,
38:54Japanese is incredibly complicated.
38:57Instead of a 26-letter alphabet
38:59like we have in English,
39:00they have the kana,
39:01which is a collection
39:02of every possible syllable sound,
39:04and there are 73 of those.
39:08Despite the scale
39:10of the challenge,
39:11Yardley vows that
39:11if he doesn't break the code
39:13within a year,
39:13he will resign.
39:15But after half a year,
39:17Yardley still can't discern
39:19any real patterns.
39:20He's really starting to wish
39:21he hadn't been so hasty
39:23offering to resign.
39:25Yardley dedicates
39:26so much of his time
39:27to breaking the codes
39:28that he even starts
39:29dreaming about them.
39:31And one night,
39:32inspiration strikes.
39:34Suddenly,
39:35he's able to pick out
39:36the Japanese word
39:37for Ireland
39:38in the telegrams.
39:40Irish independence
39:41is in the news right now,
39:42and the Japanese
39:43are discussing it
39:44in their diplomatic telegrams.
39:45Now, it's like he has
39:47the corner of a jigsaw puzzle,
39:48and he builds out from this,
39:50cracking one syllable
39:51and then another.
39:52And finally,
39:53after six months,
39:55Yardley and his team
39:56have the Japanese code
39:57completely defeated.
40:00Yardley's work
40:00helped secure
40:01a historic peace deal
40:03on U.S. terms,
40:04and Yardley is rewarded
40:06with a distinguished
40:07service medal.
40:08But this becomes
40:09the high point
40:10of his code-breaking career.
40:13By 1929,
40:14after a series
40:15of funding cuts,
40:16Yardley's cipher bureau
40:17is closed for good.
40:18But because it didn't
40:19officially exist,
40:21he's not able to draw
40:22a civil service pension.
40:23So in the end,
40:24he ends up broke.
40:26Feeling betrayed,
40:28Yardley decides
40:28to publish
40:29a tell-all book
40:30called
40:30The American Black Chamber.
40:32This effectively makes him
40:33the Edward Snowden
40:34of his time,
40:34but it also makes him
40:35a small fortune.
40:36He rakes in the equivalent
40:38of half a million dollars
40:39in today's currency.
40:41The U.S. government
40:42is outraged
40:43by Yardley
40:44having gone
40:44from their secret
40:45puzzle nerd
40:46to a rogue operator.
40:48Yardley's book
40:49is an embarrassment
40:51to the U.S. government.
40:54Because of it,
40:55some 19 nations
40:56are alerted
40:57that their codes
40:58have been broken
40:59by the United States.
41:01They can't throw him
41:02in jail
41:03because only limited laws
41:05exist
41:06on spilling state secrets.
41:07In March of 1933,
41:10Congress amends
41:11the Espionage Act
41:12by passing
41:13an Act for the Protection
41:15of Government Records.
41:16This prohibits
41:17the disclosure
41:18of anything sent in code.
41:19These laws,
41:20Yardley inspired,
41:22become informally known
41:23as the Official Secrets Act,
41:25and they still bind
41:26government officials today.
41:31From a prison cell
41:32to battlefields,
41:33secret codes
41:34are a vital way
41:35nations hide information
41:37from their enemies.
41:39But for every locked door,
41:40there is a key.
41:41And for every code,
41:43a genius mind
41:45trying to crack it.
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