•• REF ID:A69820 •• 

Mr. C&rl I. 'Wheat.,, . Attorney at Lav, 

Shoreham Building,· Washington, D. C. 

Dear Mr. Wheat: . 

SPSIS-3 

.26 June. 1944. 

Further in' connection with the Navajos~ I regPet to 

have to report tbat A:rrq Ground Forces have decided not to 

go into a training program along .the lines ve discussed. 

They have given the •tter th~rougb cona1der&t1on and bave 

reached definite conclusions. As yet no answer bas been 

received rrom t.he Arrq Air Forces, but I will communicate 

vi th you as aoon as I hear &nJ"thing ... 

With·eordial greetings, I &.,, 

S1ncerel7 J'P'JrB, 

w111i&m p. Friedman,. 

Director of Communications 

Research. 

!Declassified and approved for release by NSA bn 04-02-2014 pursuant to E 0. 1352§ 

.' 
--

WHEAT AND MAY 

ATTORNEYS AT LAW 

SHORE:HAM BUILDING 

WASHINGTON, D C 

CARL I WHEAT 

ROBERT E MAY 

A DALE COBB 

Washington 5, D. C. 

May 11, 1944 

William F. Friedman 

3932 Military Road, N. W. 

Washington, D. C. 

Dear Colonel Friedman: 

In response to my brief note to Sgt. 

Johnston at Camp Pendleton~ California, I have 

received a letter from him in.which the matter 

I mentioned to you is referred to as follows: 

"Thanks for your letter of May second. My work here is going better 

than ever. The Navajos, without exception, are eager to excel their 

white comrades in the speed of transmitting messages -- and when I turn 

them over to the field school they succeed in doing it by at least a 

two-to-one ratio. All the officers 

think they're tops." 

I thought you might be interested in 

this comment. 

Sincerely yours, 

REPUBLIC 4123 

MILLS TOWE:R 

SAN FRANCISCO 

YUKON 2287 
' 

/ 

Number 

each 

action 

1. 

1394 

ToDirector of 

Communications 

Research 

r 

: OONFIDENTIAL e - 6 REF ID:A6982w • 

ROUT:IG AND WORK SHEE~ 

Memorandum 

r. In reply to your informal request of 

7 Jmi.e 1944 regarding the attitudes expressed 

by the ~ Ground Forces and ArJI19' Air Forces 

on the use of Navajo Indians for use in radio 

telephony transmissions,, the f'ollov1ing information has been obtained: 

Army Ground Forces: Lieute~t ~olonel 

James M. Kimbrough,, Jr. of the Signal'Section 

of Army Ground Forces informed the writer 

that Colonel G. B. Rogers and Colonel o. K. 

Sadtler took this matter up with G-2 and 

obtained their feelings and opinions on it. 

Apparently,, G-2 was .dead set against the 

adoption or the plan to use Indians,, since it 

was felt that the security features inherent 

ifi the Navajo tongue were ·not sufficient 

!

enough to warrant development for general radio 

telephony transmission~. It was further 

objected to that the ene?ny could obtain trans-. 

lators and after the recordations of sufficient 

plain text had been obtained, the entire 

language be subject to successful analysis 

and compromise. -

Therefore,, the Army Ground Forces did not 

feel justified in screening the entire arlll\Y in 

search of Navajo linguists. 

Army Air Forces: As yet no ansl"ler has 

been received to our request of 13 June 1944 

directed to the Army Air Forces on the same 

subject and we are therefore unable to express 

to you their feelings on this matter. Upon 

receipt of this information, it will be immediately forwarded to your a~tention. 

CONFIDENT!Al 

Name, Division or Branch, and Date 

Chas. E. Henshall 

1st Lt.. SPSrS-4 

17 June 1944 

Ext. 307 
.. • REF ID:A698 • • CARL I WHEAT 

ROBERT E MAY 

A CALE COBB 

William F. Friedman 

WHEAT AND MAY 

ATTORNEYS AT LAW 

3932 Military Road, N. w. 

Washington, D. C. 

·Dear Colonel Friedman: 

SHOREHAM BUILDING 

WASHINGTON, C C 

REPUBLIC 4123 

MILLS TOWER 

SAN FRANCISCO 

YUKON 2287 

Washington 5, D. O. 

May 2, 1944 

Thank JOU for your letter of the 1st with respect · to the possible use of Navajo Indians in Army communioations. 

Pursuant to your suggestion, I shall of course merely advise 

Sgt. Johnston that the matter is still under consideration 

here, without further details. 

Possibly Johnston's success in connection with the 

Marines has been due to the fact that he lived for some years in the Navajo country and understands these Indians probably 

as well as does a.ny white man. It is unquestionably necessary 

to afford to the selected Indians a ~ufficient and properly developed course of training in order to enable them properly 

to handle this type of assignment. Anything less would doom 

such a project to failure from the start. 

It is probably true that the reservoir or Navajos who are qualified by education to handle this type of work 

is, as you say, "exhausted." However, one of Johnston's 

difficulties, as I understand it, seems to have been that 

the Army had already drafted most of the more qualified Navajos before the Marines initiated this particular effort. 

Doubtless, if the Army so desired, it could find plenty of 

well-qualified young Navajos in various branches of the service who could be assigned-to such a task and who could pro- bably render greater service through such assignment than by 

merely being left in ordinary, run-of-the-mill military jobs. 

In any event, I keenly appreciate your thoughtfulness in writing me. I feel sure that you understand that my sole intent in drawing this matter to your attention was to 

further the war effort. Please call on me if I can be of any additional service. 

Sincerely yours, 

~ya;~