MEMO ROUTING SLl~~A I ALS, DISAPPROVALS, 

I" I CONCURRENCES. OR SIMILllR ACTIONS 

1 NAMEJr J!..TLE 

(.M /,....~ 

INITIALS 

DATE 

2. 

3 

4 

REMARKS 

FROM NAME OR TITLE 

ORGANIZATION AND 

CIRCULATE 

COORDINATION 

FILE 

NOTE AND RETURN 

SEE ME 

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TELE 

i~~~ NE 

DD FORM 95 ReplaceaDA.AOOForm895,1Apr48,BndilHQ l.ll--4MB?_,, .,.0 I FEB 50 l!'omi 12. 10 Nov ,7, whlob D1B7 bo lllMld. 

eclas ified a d a roved for release b NSA on 11-06-2013 ursuant to E. 0. 1352 
... - --.... ~rlUPN..mP314 U U 11 I I Ul-111 I • • • -

VARIAN associates 

RUSSELL H. VARIAN, PRESIDENT • H. MYRL STEARNS, GENERAL MANAGER 

611 HANllN WAY• PALO ALTO. CALIPOINIA • DAVENPORT S·S631 

Mr. Wil.liam Friedman 

National. Security Agency 

Washington1 D.C. 

My dear Billy: 

March 21 1 1.955 

For a long time you have not heard from me. My silence is now 

broken and I desire to convey to you what I consider an excell.ent 

possibil.ity for a high degree cipher system. 

For the past year I have been employed by Varian Associates, 

in Palo Al.to. I have come in contact, during this period, with a 

number of fine, up-standing young men, one of which is a designer 

of the encl.osed cryptograph system. He is Howard N. Smith, a 

graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Howard Smith is 

highly respected in our organization and has gone to great l.engths 

in the development of this system. I have studied it and consider 

that it has excellent possibility for military usage, should it be 

possible to convert it electronically to automatic usage. 

I consider your judgment in matters of this nature as the best 

obtainable in the United States, so if you will. be kind enough to 

carefull.y analyze the possibilities of our Government's use of the 

enclosed system, and give us your recommendations, I will. be extremely grateful. 

The inventor's position is that he desires the system be 

compl.etel.y anal.yzed by an expert to determine the extent of possible 

interest. Should there be merit, he would be willing to make it 

exclusively available to the United States' Government under some 

proper contractual arrangement. Mr. Smith also advises me that 

should you consider it as a possibility he would be glad to come to 

Washington to discuss the matter in detail with the appropriate 

authorities. 

-&0NFIBENTIAt 
~ ~ . -.. REifil •ll'Rlr&VA~ 14 

UU111 IULn 11nL. 

VARIAN 

•••••iat•• 

Mr. William Friedman 

National Security Agency - 2 - March 21, 1955 

I hope this letter finds you and Mrs. Friedman in good 

health and happiness, and Mrs. Stoner and I hope that, should 

you every come West, you'll plan to stop by to see us. Our 

best wishes also. 

Enclosure: Cryptographic System 

Invented by Howard N. Smith 

(Dated November 14, 1954) 

Sincerely, 

~u,J .... --- v Frank E. Stoner 

P.S.: I am transmitting this System to you by my good friend, 

Colonel Walter B. Brown, our Washington representative. 

Colonel Brown served for many years in the Signal Corps, 

and I am sure you will enjoy making his acquaintance. 

-COMF\B£Nl\A~ 
MEMO ROUTING SLIP INITIALS 

DATE 

2 

A 

REMARKS 

FROM NAME OR TITLE 

ORGANIZATION AND L 

DD FORM 9 5 Replaces DA. A.GO Form 806, 1 A.pr 48, and URQ 1 FEB 50 Form 12, 10 Nov 47, wbloh D1a7 tie used. 

CIRCULATE 

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INFORMATION 

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, fif(" NE ~~ 
REF ID:A70314 

Office Memorandum . UNITED sTATEs GovERNMENT 

TO S/Asst (Mr. Friedman) DATE: "1. 8 APR 1955 

PB.OM DD/COMSEC (Col. Herrelko) 

SUBJBCT: Cryptographic System Subnitted by Howard N. Smith 

Reference: Confidential ltr fran Maj. Gen. Frank E. Stoner, USA, Rtd., 

dtd 21 Mar 55 

1. The system described in the brochure inclosed with the reference 

has been examined and round to incorporate no principles which are superior to 

those presently in use. It is a type of autokey (Vigenere) substitution wherein each 

key value is detennined by the randan selection of a letter, conversion of that 

letter to a displacement interval by a mixed canponent, and the corresponding 

displacement of the plain and cipher canponents fran their preceeding aligrnnent. 

Alternate letters of the cipher are the enc~pherment of the randanly-selected 

(indicator) letters. 

2. It is suggested that your reply to Maj. Gen. Stoner include 

substantially the following: 

"Unfortuna~ely, the system designed by Mr. Smith does not 

exemplify any cryptographic principles not already lmown to us, 

and it has certain major disavantages, canpared to systems in 

current use. Although the canbination of basic principles shows , a keen and facile mind, and a flair for cryptographic manipulation/' 

on the part of the designer, several deterrents to its operational 

feasibility, for our purposes, may be cited. The inherent requirement that each cipher message be twice the length of the corresponding 

plain language is an uneconanical feature for large volume traffic. 

The fact that a single discrepancy-".'between the correct cipher text 

and the version receive~may affect the intelligibility of the 

remainder of the message also introduces a highly undesirable factor. 

. . ~-t is recognized that such errors may be corrected readily enough ~o -\f.Ml.J,.0-Ml... . rn narid-"'ope"ratioif"of"--such-_-a--systemr however;· ifi~lectronic adapta-

~ i tions, present criteria r~re that autanatic equipnent be pennitted 1 to operate unattended, without the likelihood of unpredictably long · stretches of unintelligible plain text resulting./,\ .·' 

"It is interesting to note the thorough analysis, by the authors 

of the brochure, of the potential weaknesses of this system; their 
REF ID:A70314 

l 8APR 19~5 

independently conceived methods for averting these weaknesses represent a 

carmendable achievement. I trust you will express our appreciation to Mr. Smith, 

and to his associate Mr. Lewis, for their patriotic interest and expenditure 

of time and effort in this matter." 

The correspondence and the descriptive brochure are attached. 

Copy furnished: 

TEC (NSA-18) 

2 
REF ID:A70314 

lla,jOZ' 0eDeraJ. 11"&Qk J. 8tcDtr I tllA., fttd. • 

Yarian Aaeociatu 

611 JluMn W&1' 

1alo Alto, C&liton:Ua 

l April 1955 

I vu hi&hl7 pl•Nd. to haft a telephora9 C&ll traa ColoDel Brown 

u4 to ban neu Pout )"OU and Jira. It.oner, tor I bad been wcmdari.Dg 

alliout how 10U &re ud llba't you U. DOV doUlc • 

'ftUa letter vUl l>e but a lwiet aokDovlAdc-nt ot reoe1pt ot 

JGUr lett.r and 1\8 iAClOMU"lt 4-Jtng vith a ~phio q8Ua 

p1opc1ed. 'b)" Mr. Bovard w. lllith ot your orp.a11ation. 

Jou !latter • 'Dy 10UI' cbaracterisation ot rq Jud.amDt in 

•tten at thia m""1'9 but l vill be &lad, ot OOUl'M, to gift IV' own 

at.t.ention to Mr. laith'• pzopoM.l. after a thorouch study and a11 appraiM.l ot it au been md.e 'b1 our Yer)" omapetent Wchn1•l l't&t't 

and certain otber ~ 1'j &HOG1awa. 

Ju.at u aOOG u poaaible I will write you at thll ruul'ta o:t 

our ·~ u4 I hope both Jtr. 8ra1th and JOU will not be too illp&tient. 

J'rca ycur own ~ at torme.r 4q8 you oertaSnly are wll aware 

ot the tacrt that propoe.1 a ot t.hia eort ~ to ua 1b a n..q •tree.m 

mm pa'triotia oit1.-. and inftntor• who tiDd thi• field. tuciDa.ting. 

\W'ortumtel)', 'beOIWM \.bey 4o not ha..-. &eCHe to the extaaiw but 

UFwlly cl&u1t194 Ut.aratw-e tb&t -1...U in \hie field., the chance• 

or their 1Jn'eat1Da ~ ~ aew and UHhl are ratbtr ...u. 

Jleverthalue, beo&uM there U &l~ .w ctMIMM or t.bU, w t.ry to 

look &t each plOpoa.l in U obJectift a mimer U pou1'•le, and thi• 

doll• tea ta.. 

Your letter t1Dda both >lr'9. Friedan aDd .,..11" 1A aood bil<h. 

I ha" Juat r.-tw'Dld traa Oftr a laC!llth'• &bMDOe 1.n Im-opt CG otticial 

Du.11.:DeN, to ti.nd that a wmwoript w v:ro'\e on lb&Uapeare-lacon 

CJ')'Ptocra}lh7 vu &w.rd.K tbt $1, 000 FoJ.&er lbaDaptare LiDnt.rr ll terary 

Jlrlu. We hope to ... it pul>llab9d. ftI7 aoon. 

W!UJA,)I p • 1'JIDIWJf