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REF !~4148468 .._. 

pproved for Release by NSA on 11-04-2014 

ursuant to E.O. 13526 
.. . __ .,., - REF ID:A41484~ 

THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY . 

The Bristol Company 

117 Bristol Road 

Waterbury, Connecticut 

WASHINGTON 

June 17, 1948 

Attention: Mr. G. T. Evans 

Gentlemen: 

Secretary Forrestal has asked that I write you on behalf 

of the National Military Establishment as a whole, about a 

matter of concern to the Departments of the Army, Navy and 

Air Force. As a result of their participation in the communication security activities and operations o·r the Armed Services 

during the last war, thousands of persons came into possession 

of classified information concerning the communication (signal) 

security equipments used by the Army, the Navy, and the Air 

Force. Most of that information still is and must obviously 

remain in a classified status for reasons of national security .. · 

The great majority of the persons mentioned above are no 

longer members of those Services nor connected in any way with 

the Government. Some of them may have inventive types of mind 

and may conceive ideas for improved or new security equipments 

which they may propose for possible development by commercial 

firms, such as your firm., in the hope that their exploi ta ti on 

would be of commercial interest and value. In a few cases some 

of these former members of the Armed Services are now employed 

in commercial research laboratories or in manufacturing firms, 

and it may be part of their assigned duties to suggest n~w 

ideas for security devices or to make inventions fn this field. 

The great majority of such persons certainly would be entirely 

innocent of any intent to injur.e national security and would 

vehemently reject any thought of such intent. Nevertheless 1 

even without intent to injure national security, it ls possible 

that serious harm might result if technically sound communication security devices, employing principles based upon or 

derived from a knowledge of U.S. clas·sified equipment, became 

public-property, ultimately reaching foreign powers~ The 

development of such equipment by your company without request 

from one or more of the military Services might also prove 

to be a loss in both time and money since many of the principles concerning cryptographic devices are on file in the 

Patent Office and, because of their SECRET nature, must remain 

·unissued. 
.. .. 

• REF ID.:A414B4Eft 

The Departments of the National Military.Establishment 

have, of course, no desire to stifle technicai progress in 

any field of knowledge, but whe.re such progress clearly affects 

national security certain minimum controls are desirable. 

They have been established in the field of atomic energy, 

for ·example, but not in the field of cipher-communication, 

which also presents special problems and hazards to national 

security requiring special treatment. 

It would, therefore; be much appreciated if your company 

would inform the.Secretary of the Army, the Navy, or the Air 

Force, as deemed appropriate, of any proposals for new· cryptographic apparatus that may thus be submitted for possible · development. I should be grateful for your acknowledgement 

of this· letter and for any comments you may desire to make. 

Please regard this letter as ~onfidential. 

Copy to: 

Secretary of ·t.he Army 

Secretary of the Air For6e 

Sincerely yours, 

JOHN L. SULLIVAN