NSA 60th Anniversary


Established on Nov. 4, 1952, in 2012 the National Security Agency celebrated 60 years of service to the nation.

In issuing the directive that gave birth to the agency, then-President Harry Truman understood the need to continue U.S. efforts that had led to breaking German and Japanese codes in World War II, success against the German U-Boat threat in the North Atlantic, and victory in the Battle of Midway in the Pacific. America had become a dominant power on a global stage, facing global responsibilities and threats. As war raged in Korea, the creation of NSA allowed the Defense Department to consolidate cryptologic support to military operations, and to meet challenges that the nation would face in the Cold War.

Learn more about the Agency's storied history of service to the nation in our 60th Anniversary publication and accompanying interactive timeline: NSA's 60 Years of Defending Our Nation.

NSA 60th Anniversary Book

You can read the NSA 60th Anniversary Book in the following format:


The below interactive NSA Timeline is from 1952 to 2012 and highlights major events in NSA's 60 years of defending the nation. Please click on the various decades to find important historical documents, audio files, and photographs from World War II and the beginnings of NSA through the 2000s. Included are 250 declassified documents, 196 of which are being released for the first time, and over 150 photographs and audio files. Example of what this timeline covers: NSA's first Director, the move to Fort Meade, Congressional hearings, the Suez Crisis, NSA's purchase of its first supercomputer, spies and defections, a ship capture, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Gulf of Tonkin, Soviet challenges, Project GUNMAN and bugs in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, support to Desert Storm, information technology revolution age, expeditionary SIGINT, and COMSEC developments. It then leads into the 1990s and 2000s and covers Afghanistan and Iraq and cyber security. The sources of this unique, historical collection are from the National Security Agency archives as well as all the Presidential Libraries. NSA/CSS 60th Anniversary Timeline

ImageTitle
 19800122_1980_DOC_3984618_TACTICAL.PDFMemorandum: Tactical Cryptologic Program - 22 January 1980
 19450830_PRENSA_DOC_3983903_MERGER.PDFMerger of Army-Navy COMINT Activities - 30 August 1945
 19450914_PRENSA_DOC_3983893_MERGEROF.PDFMerger of Army-Navy Communications Intelligence Activities - 14 September 1945
 19830401_1980_DOC_3978948_NATIONAL.PDFNational Security Agency Act of 1959, Amended - 01 April 1983
 19720217_1970_DOC_3984040_NSCID6.PDFNational Security Council Intelligence Directive 6 - 17 February 1972
 19500310_PRENSA_DOC_3978420_NSCID9.PDFNational Security Council Intelligence Directive No. 9 - 10 March 1950
 19780628_1970_DOC_3984041_NATIONAL.PDFNational Security Information - 28 June 1978
 19550331_1950_DOC_3978570_NAVY.PDFNavy Space Requirements at Fort Meade - 31 March 1955
 19991001_1990_DOC_3961880_NETEAM.PDFNew Enterprise Team, (NETeam) Recommendations, The Director's Work Plan for Change - 01 October 1999
 19680207_DOC_3981378_VOICE.PDFNorth Korean Navy Voice Reflections of U.S.S. Pueblo Seizure - 7 February 1968
 19550217_1950_DOC_3709806_NOTES.PDFNotes on AFSA NSA Key Officials - 17 February 1955
 19530909_DOC_3982314_NSAAIRRAID.PDFNSA Air Raid Alert Instructions - 9 September 1953
 19540618_1950_DOC_3978566_NSABULLETIN.PDFNSA Bulletin 25-54 - 18 June 1954
 19530504_1950_DOC_3978867_NSABULLETIN.PDFNSA Bulletin 27-53 - 6 May 1953
 19540127_1950_DOC_3978559_ARRIVAL.PDFNSA Bulletin 4-54 Arrival of the President of Turkey - 27 January 1954
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NSA 60th Anniversary Audio Transcripts

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1960s

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