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A Short History of the NSA
National Security Agency
The largest and most secret of the
intelligence agencies of the U.S.
government, the National Security
Agency (NSA), with headquarters at Fort
Meade, Maryland, has two main
functions: to protect U.S. government
communications and to intercept foreign
communications. It protects government
communications by enciphering messages
and taking other measures to ensure
their secrecy. In its foreign
intelligence function the NSA marshals
a vast corps of intelligence analysts
who use sensitive electronic equipment
to monitor, decipher, and translate the
communications of foreign governments.
It is able to follow space rocket
launchings in the USSR and to overhear
conversations between aircraft pilots
and ground-control personnel in remote
areas of the globe. The NSA was
established in 1952 as a separately
organized agency within the Department
of Defense. It replaced the Armed
Forces Security Agency. In 1979 the NSA
had more than 20,000 employees and a
budget of about $1.5 billion.
Bibliography
Collins, John M., Grand Strategy(1973);
Trager, Frank N., National Security and American Society (1973).
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