To term this modest collection The Friedman Legacy requires both explanation and apologia. Of Friedman, as of Wren, it might well be said, "If you seek his monument, look around you" at the giant and far-flung corporate entity that represents American cryptology today. But a most tangible and rewarding form of his legacy for many of us has long been his "Lectures." First published within NSA in 1963, after serialization in a journal five years earlier, they were republished two years later by his first recruit into government service and the first commandant of the National Cryptologic School, the eminent cryptologist Frank Rowlett. In his Foreword to that edition, Mr. Rowlett described the lectures as ". . . the history of Cryptology [as] recorded by the most prominent pioneer in the application of scientific principles to the field – one who, without question, laid the foundation for our modern concepts. It is hoped that both new and old employees may be inspired with a feeling of belonging to a profession that abounds in drama and fascination and that has had a profound impact on history."

The sense of what one might term "the romance of cryptology" continues to adhere: Director Vice Admiral W.O. Studeman, introducing the 1990 Cryptologic History Symposium in NSA's William F. Friedman Auditorium, referred affectionately and with a hint of awe to "this magical [MAGIC-al?] place." That mystique, derived from an appreciation of the privilege of service to the nation in a largely anonymous but most rewarding profession, in company with a rare breed of men and women, must be rediscovered with each new generation. As tools and techniques become less personal, as individual accomplishment is more difficult to discern, it comes to depend increasingly on awareness of the past – the heritage, the traditions, the symbols, of the Friedman era, when a tiny unit of Army civilians and their uniformed Navy counterparts began a revolution – and the ability to find equally satisfactory modern equivalents, to become part of a continuum.

In making The Friedman Lectures again available to the professional community, several related papers have been included to give the newcomer a fuller appreciation of Friedman and his fellow cryptanalyst and lifemate, Elizebeth: the recollections of his colleague and amanuensis, Lambros Callimahos, Guru and Caudillo of the Dundee Society (parochial humor that must be separately explained to the newcomer), a tribute to Elizebeth on the occasion of her death, and an appreciation of the two from a fellow laborer in the vineyard – these, with the Lectures, we have been bold to style The Friedman Legacy.

David W. Gaddy Chief Center For Cryptologic History [1992]