·~ _, 

OOP!' -

A REF ID:A55402 A •LroP SECRET • 

DE.E'AllrMENJ.' OF DBF.ENSE 

ARMED FORCES SEOUBI'l't AGENCY 

Washington 25, Do o. 

' 

JtJL 18 1951 

Subject: Oommen.t cm USOIB l3/195D "MoaB'W.'98 tor tm IDOJ!'E6994 Secur1t7 

ot COMIN'l" 

lo AFS.~·ll recamnends that we take the position ot supporting the 

principles of this proposal while reserving judgement on detaUa. This 

is a logical position to take, because it would be useless to belabor 

tho details (same of which need £Second thoughts) until we ha"YO some a&-

aura:nce that the general principle.us on whtch they ere based have general 

u. s .. acceptonoe. 

2o In my opinion, the so principles are toreed on us whether we lib 

thEm or not. 1b.e baaio purpose ot the D.9llf proposal 1s to .H:,9r_ease tho 

eecuri tx ot :reellJ' top-level, aally senei ti ve ooril!INT, and to ine:rea ae 

Jill..! getulnes,.1 ot lower-level• less rums! ti ve Oo.MIN'.r. It ia proposed to 

4o this by separating the two, and handling them cli.i'terentl7, so that 

the hieh-level, sensitive COM!J.'f.C will not be imperilled by association 

with low-level COMIN'.f which requires wide diaaem.inat1on0 and the lOlf• 

l&Yel 00~ will not. be mewed up to the point of uselessness b7 assooiation with high ... level OOUINT which requires s·bringe>nt aateguardso UDl.eas 

7ou ~em:ratca. them, ~ will ,!10,i .!.£CJ!l.J?li.!\ this Jm1'!0JJJ!• 

3. 'lbe ealient feature ot the new proposal, theu, is the method 

ot 41 vision ot 00.\JlIN.r into aeparnte oete6Qries. '!'he propoae1d categorization can be called a departure from 01· not a departure from. tha beaio 

principles of the present Append.ix B depending on bow far doivn ,ou go 

in ~ ciefinition ot "bamic"o The or1g1:nel 1946 Appendix B provided 

'for d1vidinS OOJ:m~ into categories based broaal.y on difficulty ot prom 

<lu.otion. The proposed version doea the 15Qme thing, eo that there is 

really no depal'ture from the old principle in that respecto lbere the 

difference lies is in the direction of slicing the categorteso The 

original division was a hor!zontal one--o:eyptanalysis was clitticult 0 eso 

it formed the top aetegory 0 with greatly limited diseemination.-traf'f'ic 

analysis was leso difficult, GO it formed the lower category, with leas 

reetl'icted disasn.ination. (I ignore for the moment the fact that, ill 

pioeetice, no ditterGnce was made in degrees ot diesElllinetion. ) 5.b:as, 

with any apecit1c bo47 of foreign traffic. J'OU could cryptanalyze 1t and 

dissm.inate the product narrowl;v as top .... category OOMIN'r, or traftia ... a:nelyze it and put ou·i; the product more 11idel7 as low-level OOMINTo 

.f:o ~s bae1s of categorizing began to come loose et the eea.ms 

almost as soon as it was devisedo 'lhe ll8ture ot the problem waa suoh11 

TOP SECRET 

Declassified and approved for release by NSA on 05-22-2014 pursuantto E.O. 1352a 
REF ID:A55402 

00.PY • - TOP SECRET 

_.... 

i'eJ? S~'Q!U -- JlJL 18 1951 

Subject: OC'.llmlent on USOIB 13/19511 "Meoaurea f'or the In.creased security 

ot 00.W:NTtt 

or began to became au.ch, that t.he neat distinction between difficult• 

senis1t1ve cryptual7a1s end easy, 111saneitive trat.t1c snalysio simply 

41.d not hold. Tb.ts was recognized in 1948 1n amenclments to .~ppeudix B 

b:r whieh exceptional shifts ot category could be made tor apecitio cases 

ot "eao7" omtanalyaia and "difficult" traffic amlysis. Thia mal&:ee 

shift seemed to patch up the old Appendix B almost adequately for e while 11 

but tbe ple:ln lallgWlge problem. and various problems brought out by the 

X'orean ~V111r 11 and which have beian partially solved on a piece=meal baaia• 

have shown that a more fo.l14amental change is neededo 

5. The present propoul provides for a vertical oatego:ry divieion 

by technical 41f'fioul-f;y end sensitivity ot the foreign eammmicationa 

thauselves, rathCllr than by what is done with them. This mtatem.cmt, 

though an oversimplification, is ee:sentially true. Of course, the Pl'O=' 

posed top categor7 will continue to contain largely the produeto ot 

CrJPtenalysis, ond very few of traffic anel7aia • and the bottc:m aategorJ' 

will be heavi!J" traffic anelJ'BiS• ... but this ti!.ll be because ot the uture 

ot things, am not because of srt1fioiel1 ties ereated by category def1m.-

tions 1 ea a+. present~ (Under the propoeal 9 categorization., in practice, 

will be specitic--tor each new COMIN'r job as it comes up someone will 

have to detannine what catee;ory it belongs ·i;o. At present, the catego:t'f 

le prescribed by blanket zules whioh 1 os often as not, fail to sat1af7 

the needs in individual ceeea.) 

611 lll.a details ot ho11 muoh we are goi:ag to telm the wraps ott i:he 

low-level s't"Uff 1 and v1hatthecode-words will be, and haa hanclled0 and 

whether there shall be one level ot oleara:aea o:r two or tour, requ1r& 

eome studJ' 11 end I do not propose to go into that now. It seeiu to me 

that USCIB mu.st agree (l) that the four proposed categories e.re neceisasry 1 (2) that the h1ghe1• ones mat eome tmder rulop predicated on~ 

secur1 tx., end ( 3) that the lower onea must CCJ.11& under rulee predieatad 

en usGfUlnesso 'lhio much agreed on, we ehou,ld pi"eaent these baaio points 

to ISIB ,-to'get their reaot1on. Olll7 then need we start hee;gling over 

tho dEr'liailD of implementation. The proposed revised Appendix B submitted 

with the paper 10 merely one way ot doiDg it--the:re are many others. 

CO: . AFSA-OOB 

/ts/ Eo s. L. Goodwin 

Eo s. Lo GOODWIN 

Captain, u. ~. Navy 

AFSiL-U 

TOP SECRET