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Hon Louis A Johnson 

Secret&rT of Defense 

Washington 25 D C 

Dear Sl.1' 

FISCHER WILLIS & PAN~ 

1/arch 10 19'\0 

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This letter is written on be~alf of Yr William F Friedman 

Director of Oo111JD1n1cations Research Defense Security ~gency He 

is ill and has received permission to retain us to pursue tne matter 

about w'i.ic~ this commuru.cation is concerned 

Ji r Friedman is responsible ind1vidual1" and in collaboration 

with others for the :LnVention and develooment of systems and devices 

in the field of militar.r communic-tions ~hich have proved to be of the 

ut'llost llD.portance to the defense of our country For his efforts in 

this dl.l'ection he has received the ~edal for Merit from President 

Truman and also the Commendation for !xceotional Civilian Service 

from ienr/ L Stimson Secretary of Rar Copies of both are attac~ed hereto 

In connection with these inventions patent applicatiol'Bhave been 

filed the government allowing Mr Friedoan alone with re pect to some 

of the applications and with collaborators with respect to others to retain 

commercl.8.1 and foreign rights All of these patent applications have been 

placed in secrecj status one of the inventions has been in secrecy now for 

over sixteen years and a second for over tnirt.een years It is highly un li~ell' that an.1 of the invent1ons will be released fro~ secrecy at least 

for a great many years to col'le 

It has already bPen indicated that Mr Friedman is now ill and in the 

largest measure his illness is aue to the unusualll' severe strain imposed 

upon him by tne nature of his work Indeed it is probable that his 

earning capacity has been perma ently and heavily J.mpaired In the light 

of taese facts the question bas arisen whethPl' in equity an attempt is 

not warra~ted to obtain from the Congress an act authorizing the Depart 

ment of Def'ease to purchase from Mr Friedman all the rights he has been 

allowed to retain in the inventions which have been placed in secrecy 

status by the government for a token payment that would help in easing 

tbe concern he might have about his liveli~ood in the future even 

though such a payment had little relation to the high value we unaerstand 

such rights might have uader aJ.fterent circumstances There are 

precedents for such awards in the co111111Unicat1ons field t'Ven in tae 

absence of any property rights in the :LnVentions 

@'pp roved for Release by NSA on 08-30-2013 pursuantto E .0. 1352a 
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TO Hon. Louis A. Johnson 

March 10, 1950 

Page 2 of 2 pages 

It has occurred to us that the ordinary procedure in pursu1ng 

a matter such as this may not be available in this case because of the 

delicacy of the subject matter of the inventions involved. In any 

case, we believe it to be best to discuss the matter with a 

representative of your office before proceeding further. It is 

therefore the purpose of this letter to request that you designate 

a representative to whom we ~ould be authorized to present the 

mattPr in full and who in turn would have authority to ascertain 

and infonn us of the disposition of the Department of Defense in 

that connection 

Because we have no way of knowing whether the Department wishes 

to treat this request in a manner not routine, we are delivering this 

communication and attachments by hand to MaJor General Leven C. Allen 

in order that we ~ill not be in the position of having embarrassed 

your decision on that score. 

Very truly yours, 

Henry G. Fiscner