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NCMF Support to the NSA Center for Cryptologic History

The Foundation supports the NSA Center for Cryptologic History (CCH) by assisting them in preparing for the bi-annual CCH History Symposium and providing support to the CCH History Research Program.

CCH Symposium Support

In the summer of 2003, then Director of NSA, General Michael V. Hayden, requested support from the Foundation for the October 2003 CCH History Symposium. This was the first time the symposium was held at a location outside the NSA Friedman Auditorium and it created special challenges to organize the event at another location. Since then the Foundation has teamed with the CCH to help stage the bi-annual event that attracts international attention from academia and the intelligence community. It is a prestigious program that showcases speakers that are cryptologic authorities from around the world.

Program production begins two years in advance with reservations for a suitable venue for an event that attracts over 200 attendees. Planning begins in earnest when the CCH advertises its “Call for Papers” in the spring of the program year. At the same time the Foundation Programs Committee meets to plan an agenda for its General Membership Meeting that is scheduled for the day preceding the symposium and has now become an expected part of the three-day cryptologic event. This is followed by the production and mailing of program flyers and registration forms three months in advance of the event. In the ensuing months, the CCH and Foundation staffs plan the details for food presentation, transportation, security, audio-visuals and the registration process.

The theme and agenda topics of the History Symposium always attract the interest of scholars, professionals and the public. For example, in 2009 the agenda included separate presentations and discussions of the attack on the Liberty and the capture of the Pueblo and in the audience were a few actual participants as well as relatives of the crew members, thus making the presentation of these events especially vivid and poignant

Since 2003 the CCH has received accolades for their symposiums and 2009 will mark the third time the CCH and Foundation have cooperated in staging this popular three-day cryptologic event. We are looking forward to another great success.

CCH Expresses Appreciation for support to Symposium held October 15-16, 2009

Letter to Mr. Eugene J. Becker. President, National Cryptologic Museum Foundation, Inc.

On behalf of the Center for Cryptologic History, I would like to express our appreciation for the impressive support the National Cryptologic Museum Foundation provided to the 12th Cryptologic History Symposium, held at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics
Laboratory's Kossiakoff Conference Center on 15-16 October 2009. 

This was the most ambitious symposium we have ever staged. It drew over 230 attendees and included over 50 speakers from at least a dozen countries. The feedback we received was very positive. 

We could not have put together this conference - or any of the past symposia held "outside the fenceline" dating back to 2003 - without the strong support provided by the Foundation. Our ability to team with the Foundation on these symposia has led to the staging of what has become the world's premier conference on cryptologic history.


Please pass to the Foundation's membership our gratitude for the very important role their support to the symposium has played. Through this event, we've been able to advance an understanding of cryptologic history in an extraordinarily high-profile public forum. We plan to hold the 13th Cryptologic History Symposium in 2011 and
we look forward to the opportunity to team with the Foundation again.


                                         With Warmest Regards,
                                         WILLIAM J. WILLIAMS, Ph.D.
                                         Colonel, USAF (Ret)
                                         Chief, Center for Cryptologic History