Herbert Yardley
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 Herbert O. Yardley
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| Born | 13 April 1889 Worthington, Indiana |
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| Died | 7 August 1958 |
| Fields | Cryptology |
Herbert Osborne Yardley (13 April 1889-7 August 1958) was an American cryptologist best known for his book The American Black Chamber (1931). The title of the book refers to MI-8, the cryptographic organization of which Yardley was the founder and head. Under Yardley, the cryptanalysts of the American Black Chamber broke Japanese diplomatic codes and were able to furnish American negotiators with significant information during the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922. He later helped the Nationalists in China break Japanese codes and worked briefly for the Canadian government, helping it set up a cryptological section.
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[edit] Early life
Yardley was born in 1889 in Worthington, Indiana. His mother, Mary Emma Osborn Yardley, died when he was 13. His father, Robert Kirkbride Yardley, was a station master and telegrapher for a railroad. From him, Herbert learned to use the telegraph.
After graduating high school in 1907, Yardley worked as a telegrapher for a railroad. He spent his free time learning how to play poker, and applied his winnings towards his further schooling. In 1912, after passing the civil service exam, he was hired as a government telegrapher.
Yardley began his career as a code clerk in the State Department. He accepted a Signal Corps Reserve commission and served as a cryptologic officer with the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I.
[edit] Codebreaking
His career in cryptology began with his work in the code room, as he broke the U.S. government codes that crossed his desk. At that time, American codes were very weak and Yardley solved them easily. He was shocked to learn that President Wilson was using a code that had been in use for over ten years. The weakness of American codes worried Yardley, especially considering the war in Europe, so in May 1916 he began writing a hundred-page “Solution of American Diplomatic Codes”, which he gave to his boss.
Breaking American codes got Yardley wondering about the codes of other countries. American participation in the war gave Yardley an opportunity to sell the government on his idea to set up a section to break other countries' codes. He convinced Major Ralph Van Deman of the need and in June of 1917 Herbert Yardley became a 2nd lieutenant in the Signal Corps and head of the newly created eighth section of military intelligence, MI-8.[1]
Yardley proved to be a very good administrator and during the war the people of MI-8 performed well even if they did not have any spectacular successes. After the war, the American Army and the State department decided to jointly fund MI-8 and Yardley continued as head of the “Cipher Bureau”. They set up shop in New York City for legal reasons.
Cracking Japanese codes was a priority. David Kahn states:
- The most important target was Japan. Its belligerence toward China jeopardized America's Open Door policy. Its emigrants exacerbated American racism. Its naval growth menaced American power in the western Pacific. Its commercial expansion threatened American dominance of Far Eastern markets.[2]
After almost a year, Yardley and his staff finally managed to break the Japanese codes and were still reading Japanese diplomatic traffic when Washington hosted the Washington Naval Conference in 1921. The information the Cipher Bureau provided the American delegation was instrumental in getting the Japanese side to agree to a 5:3 ratio instead of the 10:7 ratio the Japanese wanted.[clarify] This was the height of Yardley's cryptanalytic career.
Unfortunately, Yardley spent much of his time in New York involved in unrelated activities. Also, the flow of diplomatic telegrams dried up as companies became less willing to break the law to help the government. In Washington, William Friedman was actively exploring cryptographic frontiers for the Army; the Cipher Bureau was becoming irrelevant. However, it was moral indignation that finally doomed the bureau. Henry L. Stimson was Secretary of State under President Hoover. When he found out about Yardley and the Cipher Bureau, he was furious and withdrew funding, summing up his argument with "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail".[3]
[edit] The American Black Chamber
MI-8 closed its doors for good on 31 October 1929, just two days after the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. With Yardley's esoteric skills in very low demand, he took up writing about his experiences in codebreaking to support his family. His memoirs, The American Black Chamber, were published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1931.
These memoirs outline the history of the first U.S. Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) organization. In addition to describing the activities of MI-8 during World War I and the American Black Chamber in the 1920s, Yardley illustrated the basic principles of signals security.
This work was instantly popular. Its critics at the time concluded that it was "the most sensational contribution to the secret history of the war, as well as the immediate post-war period, which has yet been written by an American. Its deliberate indiscretions exceed any to be found in the recent memoirs of European secret agents."[4] In the U.S., 17,931 copies were sold, with 5,480 more sold in the U.K. It was translated into French, Swedish, Japanese, and Chinese. The Japanese version sold an unprecedented 33,119 copies.
This book was an embarrassment to the U.S. government at the time, and compromised some of the sources Yardley and his associates used. Through this work an estimated 19 nations were alerted that their codes were broken. Much of the post-World War I codebreaking was done by obtaining copies of enciphered telegrams sent over Western Union by foreign diplomats (as was the custom before countries had technology for specialized communications devices). William F. Friedman, considered the father of modern American signals intelligence (SIGINT) gathering, was incensed by the book and related publicity in part because sources and methods were compromised and because Yardley's contribution was overstated.
While Yardley may have thought that publishing this book would force the government to re-establish a SIGINT program, it had the opposite effect. The US Government considered prosecuting Yardley, but he had not technically violated existing law regarding protection of government records. PL 37 (USC Title 18, section 952) was signed into law in 1933 in response Yardley's efforts to publish another book entitled Japanese Diplomatic Codes: 1921-1922. This work was seized by US marshals and never hit the presses. The manuscript was declassified in 1979.
The American Black Chamber represents an early example of the exposé national security books that would appear after World War II, such as The Codebreakers and The Puzzle Palace, which also focus on U.S. SIGINT operations and organizations.
[edit] After the Black Chamber
Yardley did cryptologic work for Canada (although pressure from the US on the Canadian government meant this was limited) and China during World War II, but he was never again given a position of trust in the U.S. government. Despite this, in 1999 he was given a place in the National Security Agency Hall of Honor.
None of Yardley's many later attempts at writing were as successful as The American Black Chamber, though he published several articles, three spy/mystery novels (The Blonde Countess, Red Sun of Nippon, and Crows Are Black Everywhere), and contributed to several movies (including Rendezvous, based very loosely on one of his novels, The Blonde Countess) as a writer and technical advisor. His 1957 book on poker, Education of a Poker Player, which combined poker stories with the math behind the poker strategies, sold well. Another book of cryptographic memoirs, The Chinese Black Chamber (about his work in China), was declassified and published in 1983.
Yardley died at 1:15 p.m. on 7 August 1958, nearly a week after having a major stroke. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Grave 429-1 of Section 30.
Yardley is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Jeffrey T. Richelson, A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century, pp. 69-70. Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 019511390X.
- ^ David Kahn, The Reader of Gentlemen's Mail: Herbert O. Yardley and the Birth of American Codebreaking, p. 62. Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-300-09846-4.
- ^ Kahn (2004), p. 98.
- ^ W. A. Roberts, as quoted in Kahn (1972).
[edit] References
- David Kahn, The Reader of Gentlemen's Mail: Herbert O. Yardley and the Birth of American Codebreaking, Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-300-09846-4.
- David Kahn, The Codebreakers, Macmillan Company, New York, New York, 1972. LOC Number 63-16109 .
- Herbert Osborne Yardley, The Education of a Poker Player, Including Where and How One Learns to Win, Oldcastle Books, 1990. ISBN 0-948353-76-7 (originally published in 1957).
The article incorporates text from OpenHistory.
