1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:11,359 Welcome to Spycraft, a podcast that tells gripping life and death spy stories and 2 00:00:11,439 --> 00:00:17,199 the amazing devices and operations that made them possible. Now let's get started. 3 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:25,920 Welcome Everybody. The once classified A tale of Juanita Moody. Yes, as 4 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:29,519 he came out of an article from Smithsonian magazine that just came out. On 5 00:00:29,559 --> 00:00:33,799 the morning of Sunday, October fourteenth, Janita Moody exited the headquarters of the 6 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:38,039 National Security Agency in Maryland and walked a short distance to her car, parked 7 00:00:38,079 --> 00:00:41,280 to one of the front row spaces reserved for top leadership. The sky was 8 00:00:41,399 --> 00:00:45,000 beautiful, and Moody had just learned that the Air Force was sending a U 9 00:00:45,119 --> 00:00:51,079 two spyplane over Cuba to take high altitude photographs of military installations. Moody was 10 00:00:51,119 --> 00:00:54,399 worried for the pilot. Twice already in the past two years, a U 11 00:00:54,399 --> 00:00:58,039 two spy plane had been shot out of the sky, once over the Soviet 12 00:00:58,119 --> 00:01:00,799 Union and once over China. He was also worried for the country. Tensions 13 00:01:00,799 --> 00:01:04,599 between the US and the Soviet Union were worsening by the day. JFK. 14 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:08,239 American military leaders of the Intelligence Committee believe that the Soviet military is up to 15 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:14,239 something in Cuba, but nobody can say what. So Moody went out and 16 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:17,439 got into her old convertible with that precise moment, and had been told this 17 00:01:17,519 --> 00:01:19,840 pilot was going to get into his plane. What unfolded over the next few 18 00:01:19,879 --> 00:01:23,959 weeks was one of the most dangerous periods in the history of civilization, the 19 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:29,319 Cuban Missile Crisis. It was considered a nearly catastrophic failure on the part of 20 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:34,599 America's national security apparatus. How America's top agents, soldiers, diplomats, intelligence 21 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:38,239 analysts failed to anticipate and uncover the build up of a nuclear arsenal less than 22 00:01:38,239 --> 00:01:42,439 one hundred miles of the coast is still being debated. However, the story 23 00:01:42,439 --> 00:01:48,040 of American intelligence activities before and during the crisis is far from complete. Most 24 00:01:48,079 --> 00:01:51,159 of the time, when you listen to intelligence stories, folks, it's usually 25 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:55,920 complicated and not everybody has the answers. So even these journalists think they do, 26 00:01:56,359 --> 00:02:00,400 they don't have everything. They have whatever they are allowed to have. 27 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:05,040 One of the most extraordinary emissions to data to date is the central role played 28 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:08,080 by Moody, a thirty or eight year old code breaking wizard and the head 29 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:13,199 of the NSA's Cuba desk during the perilous Fall of nineteen sixty two. Even 30 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:16,120 today, her name is largely unknown outside this agency, and the details of 31 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:21,840 her contributions remained closely guarded. You see what I mean of medium height, 32 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:25,719 brown hair. Moody was not a spy in the secret agent sense. Her 33 00:02:25,759 --> 00:02:31,879 world was signals intelligence organ as it's known sig I n T. There's human 34 00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:38,919 to human intelligence SIGANT. There's also OCENT and SGANT is radio messages, radar 35 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:43,840 data, electronic communications, weapons systems, reading things of that nature. Her 36 00:02:43,879 --> 00:02:46,759 only brief turn in the spotlight came more than a decade after the Cuban Missile 37 00:02:46,759 --> 00:02:51,560 crisis, when she found herself caught up in the domestic surveillance scandals that engulfed 38 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:57,159 Washington. But who was she Well, years of data has come out through 39 00:02:57,159 --> 00:03:04,039 government archives revealing reviewing normal classified documents. Now including internal NSA reports that have 40 00:03:04,159 --> 00:03:07,800 been released, we have a little bit more information of who she was. 41 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:10,560 And she was born in nineteen twenty four, the first of nine children. 42 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:16,919 But that history, we're not going to worry about what we're going to look 43 00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:20,759 ats. We're going to zoom to spring nineteen forty three. When she was 44 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:24,520 nineteen, she took a few tests in Virginia, headquarters of the Signal Intelligence 45 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,840 Service. She was trained quickly on what was known as crypto analysis, and 46 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:31,919 was soon part of a group that used cipher's to crack the encrypted Nazi communications. 47 00:03:32,199 --> 00:03:35,960 When she finished work for the day, she and a few other obsessives 48 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,319 stayed late into the night, working illicitly on an unsolved one time pad, 49 00:03:38,439 --> 00:03:43,560 a code that can only be cracked with a key provided to the messages recipient 50 00:03:43,639 --> 00:03:47,439 ahead of time. She recalled working every working moment and subsisting on buns made 51 00:03:47,479 --> 00:03:53,479 by a sympathetic local baker. The painstaking nature of code breaking, when teams 52 00:03:53,479 --> 00:03:58,599 of analysts sifted through piles of intercepted texts and tabulated and computed possible interpretations using 53 00:03:58,639 --> 00:04:02,240 pencil and paper, made a very deep impression on Moody, Very different than 54 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:06,360 today folks. Eventually, she and a colleague, a linguist who had worked 55 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:13,039 at Bletchley Park in Britten's code breaking headquarters, persuaded agency engineers to custom build 56 00:04:13,039 --> 00:04:16,319 a machine for the one time pad problem based on Alan Turing's work that could 57 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:21,120 generate cipher keys automatically. It was a very clumsy thing, said Moody, 58 00:04:21,199 --> 00:04:25,920 but it worked. Helping the Americans decode secret messages sent to Berlin from the 59 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:29,480 German ambassador in Tokyo was the first of many times in her long career the 60 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:33,560 Moody who would face who herself became a familiar face at Bletchley Park helped advance 61 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:40,360 intelligent work intelligence work by pushing for an ambitious and innovative use of new technologies. 62 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:45,399 After japan surrender, Moody told her superior at the SIS that with the 63 00:04:45,439 --> 00:04:53,720 war done, she planned to return to college. Her superior had earned a 64 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:56,720 PhD, and he told that she was making a big mistake. This is 65 00:04:56,759 --> 00:04:59,560 your cup of tea. There are going to be other targets, other secrets, 66 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:01,639 storing cust This effort is not going to stop today. This is just 67 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:08,079 the beginning. Moody decided maybe he was right and stayed with the Sis as 68 00:05:08,079 --> 00:05:12,720 a staff cryptanalyst focused on signals collection in Eastern Europe. In nineteen forty seven, 69 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:15,439 she was promoted to chief of the Yugoslavia Section. Five years later, 70 00:05:15,519 --> 00:05:19,480 on October twenty fourth, nineteen fifty two. So now she's about twenty eight 71 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:24,759 years of age. President Truman signed a secret memorandum and the NSA was born. 72 00:05:26,399 --> 00:05:29,720 During the fifties, Moody took on several new leadership roles at the NSA, 73 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:32,720 Chief of European Satellites, Chief of Russian Manual Systems, Chief of Russian 74 00:05:33,079 --> 00:05:38,199 and Eastern European High Grade manual Systems. She fretted over a lot of the 75 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:42,560 technical inefficiencies, just as she had in the past. She was an advocate 76 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:46,279 for using big data long before the concept had taken hold. She managed whole 77 00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:48,600 teams of people, her troops as she called them. As a leader, 78 00:05:48,639 --> 00:05:53,560 she was in politic by her own measure, occasionally calling meetings to order by 79 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:58,319 whacking a hockey stick on the table. When it came to being a woman 80 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:01,120 in the male dominant world, had a simple outlook. I had never had 81 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:06,319 much of a problem. Moody and her husband, Wore, an executive at 82 00:06:06,319 --> 00:06:10,560 Eastern Airlines, would escape to Belwigh, eventually for the Shenandoah Valley, where 83 00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:14,560 they had a mountain cabin nicknamed Hoot and Holler. Life away from Washington was 84 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:18,319 about cocktails, lawn games, music, tracking turkeys, anything but national security 85 00:06:18,879 --> 00:06:24,040 officials from Washington, friends from around the globe, and my six agents were 86 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:28,240 usual guests of hers. Moody's favorite pastimes were listening to jazz, working in 87 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:32,040 the garden, and hunting deer. She'd been singing Roger Miller songs and had 88 00:06:32,079 --> 00:06:35,920 a drink. Was all happy, Moody's nephew, Peter Jacobs, had told 89 00:06:36,439 --> 00:06:41,040 a reporter, And in nineteen sixty one, having been attached to the so 90 00:06:41,199 --> 00:06:44,720 called Soviet Problem for several years, Moody moved up again, becoming chief of 91 00:06:44,759 --> 00:06:48,199 a section known as G Group, which was responsible for overseeing NSA's operations nearly 92 00:06:48,319 --> 00:06:54,240 everywhere excluding China and the Soviet Union, some one hundred and twenty countries. 93 00:06:54,319 --> 00:06:58,399 On the way home the night of her promotion, she stopped at a store 94 00:06:58,959 --> 00:07:00,759 and bought maps of AFT, Africa and South America. She wanted to learn 95 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:05,920 what the countries were. On April seventeen, nineteen sixty one, paramilitary soldiers 96 00:07:05,959 --> 00:07:11,680 storm Cuba's Plaia Geron, launching the brief and doomed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. 97 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:16,000 And this is where she really plays a big role. That spring, 98 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:20,600 the NSA re organized its operations, shifting resources to Cuba, which fairly squarely 99 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:26,160 which fell squarely under Moody's command there might have been the equivalent of two people 100 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:28,839 on the problem at that point. One of the first things her team detected 101 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:32,439 was Cuba's improved communications security, which had then until then been relatively unsophisticated. 102 00:07:32,959 --> 00:07:36,879 Now it was strengthened with the introduction of a microwave system across the whole island. 103 00:07:38,399 --> 00:07:42,920 The technology provided a high level of secrecy because land based microwave antennas relay 104 00:07:42,959 --> 00:07:46,399 information in a chain, and the only way to intercept the message was to 105 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:50,000 be close to the antenna. US military and intel agencies knew about the towers, 106 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:56,439 but couldn't intercept the signals being transmitted. The NASA responded by establishing new 107 00:07:56,519 --> 00:08:01,199 intercept facilities in Florida and flying surveillance aircraft around Cube, but that wasn't good 108 00:08:01,279 --> 00:08:05,600 enough. Over the next few months, Moody's team discovered that the microwave retires 109 00:08:05,639 --> 00:08:11,079 with the lease of America's worries. Sinjin revealed increased maritime but traffic from Soviet 110 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:15,839 naval bases to Cuba. Cargo manifests intercepted from Soviet ships docking in Cuba were 111 00:08:15,879 --> 00:08:20,199 sometimes blank, other times declared cargo didn't match the weights reported in port. 112 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:26,959 Through intercepted conversations, the NSA learned of clandestine unloading at night, as well 113 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:31,879 as the delivery of Soviet tanks. Moody recalls things were getting hot and hotter 114 00:08:31,639 --> 00:08:37,080 around this time. Intercepted communications in Europe contained Spanish language chatter. At air 115 00:08:37,159 --> 00:08:43,159 bases in Czechoslovakia, the Soviets were training Cuban pilots. By the fall of 116 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:46,039 nineteen sixty one, the Soviets had backed out of a bilateral moratorium a nuclear 117 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:50,720 weapons testing. They debtonated a figure fifty megaton hydrogen bomb in the Arctic Sea. 118 00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:54,519 A few weeks later, deputy director of the NSA showed up in Moody's 119 00:08:54,519 --> 00:08:58,879 office with two high ranking officials from the Canady administration. They stepped into a 120 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,279 small conference room where the agent the deputy director, closed the door and drew 121 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:07,879 the blinds. We want to know what you know about Cuba, even if 122 00:09:07,919 --> 00:09:11,960 it's a hunch, even a guess. We just want to know. Moody 123 00:09:11,039 --> 00:09:18,039 started in on her highlight reel of intercepts the anti aircraft guns to Soviet money 124 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:20,759 and personnel flowing to the island. At one point, the director interjected, 125 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:24,919 now, come on, as if Moody was exaggerating. She was unfazed. 126 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:28,039 I don't have to have any hunches, she said, it was all in 127 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:33,600 the intelligence. Impressed by her expertise, alarmed by what she had to say, 128 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:37,639 White House, no no one, no one was providing the White House 129 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:41,080 with this level of detail by an aggressive military build up in Cuba. So 130 00:09:41,159 --> 00:09:45,240 the Deputy Director asked Moody to write up her findings. Along with a few 131 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:48,120 colleagues. She spent the next three days and nights compiling wheelbarrow loads of material 132 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:54,039 to what she called the specialist little summary. When she was done, Moody 133 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:58,639 urged Tordella, the Deputy Director, to publish a report meaning circulating among the 134 00:09:58,679 --> 00:10:03,039 intell agencies. Cash has not to step outside an essay's prescribed role. The 135 00:10:03,159 --> 00:10:05,559 Deputy Director rebuffed her, but he did send it to Lansdale, who sent 136 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,360 it to President Kennedy, who returned it with his initials signaling he'd read it. 137 00:10:11,399 --> 00:10:16,039 I told my troops keep this updated. Over the next few months, 138 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:20,480 Moody repeatedly and unsuccessfully pleaded with Tordella to release her updated report. By early 139 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:24,320 nineteen sixty two, she said she was really getting scared the amount of military 140 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:26,840 equipment piling up in Cuba didn't square with the Soviet's reputed assertions that it was 141 00:10:26,879 --> 00:10:31,360 all defensive. In February, not long after, the NSA learned that a 142 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:37,639 general from the USSR's Strategic Services Forces arrived in Cuba, Moody went to Todello 143 00:10:37,799 --> 00:10:43,360 one more time, look publish it. We can't do that. Tordella director 144 00:10:43,799 --> 00:10:46,519 said, it will get us in trouble because it would be considered outside of 145 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:50,120 our charter. It has reached the point, she says that I'm worried about 146 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:54,840 the trouble we're going to get in having not published it. Tordella relented. 147 00:10:54,879 --> 00:10:58,159 It was the first such NSA report distributed to the wider intel community, and 148 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:03,120 it quickly made the Before long, an old CIA friend of Moody showed up 149 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:05,519 at her office. He wanted to congratulate her. Everyone knows that you're responsible 150 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:09,279 for getting that serialized report on what's happening in Cuba out, and I want 151 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:13,480 you to know it was a good thing. But he also warned her the 152 00:11:13,559 --> 00:11:16,200 night everyone was thrilled about her initiative, he had just come from a high 153 00:11:16,279 --> 00:11:20,200 level meeting at the CIA, during which officials tried to decide what to do 154 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:24,200 about NSA overstepping their bounds. In spite of the fact that so much about 155 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:33,080 the Cuban missile crisis has been made public, Moody's report remains classified. Nevertheless, 156 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:35,360 it's possible to track a crucial impact it had. By springtime, it 157 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:39,639 was clear that the Cubans had established an air defense system similar to the one 158 00:11:39,679 --> 00:11:43,000 in the Soviet Union. The CIA. Meanwhile, I was hearing from spies 159 00:11:43,039 --> 00:11:46,080 and double agents about missiles, but what kind of missiles was still unknown. 160 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:56,039 The rest of the story can be found on Smithsonianmagazine dot com, but we'll 161 00:11:56,080 --> 00:12:01,720 take it towards the end because it's amazing story, and it goes on and 162 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:03,519 on, and it really covers a lot more detail. But again, these 163 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:11,039 podcasts are designed to be short face. They'll see here face something with an 164 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:15,000 unprecedented threat. Kennedy ordered a maritime quarantine of Cube at the block any further 165 00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:18,519 transport of weapons to the island and declared the non compliance. But the Soviet 166 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:22,279 Union would mean war. The hope was the Light in the Sea strategy would 167 00:12:22,279 --> 00:12:24,720 demonstrate force and readiness to attack, while providing both sides with breathing rooms so 168 00:12:24,759 --> 00:12:33,559 they can begin inching away from the ledge, Moody was put in charge of 169 00:12:33,559 --> 00:12:37,399 an effort She spent many nights sleeping on a cott in her office thinking about 170 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:41,879 it was to get more intelligence about this whole situation. She recalled the soleious 171 00:12:41,879 --> 00:12:46,159 holidarity throughout the agency, with staff members from other groups showing up at her 172 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:54,720 office at the end of the day. Moody contributed quite a bit about in 173 00:12:54,840 --> 00:13:00,840 regards to the Cuban missile crisis. Nobody knew intelligence that well, and she 174 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:07,519 was how would you say, prescient and having this report distributed in a few 175 00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:11,399 weeks after this whole Cuban missile crisis, a letter of thanks addressed that the 176 00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:16,159 NSA director came from the commander of the US Atlantic Fleet, wrote to the 177 00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:20,080 intelligence coming from NSA's Cuba desk was one of the most important single factors in 178 00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:24,519 supporting our operations and improving our readiness. Moody's use during the crisis, where 179 00:13:24,519 --> 00:13:30,039 we're known as electrograms, essentially top secret intel reports sent to the highest levels 180 00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:35,440 via teletype forever reshaped how agencies handled urgent intelligence. And that's it for now. 181 00:13:35,519 --> 00:13:37,240 Thanks for listening.