TheCodeBreakers
mainland communications.
It was the A-3 that brought news of World War II to President
Roosevelt, who was awakened early on the morning of September 1,
1939, by a call from the American ambassador in Paris, William C.
Bullitt. As the United States was drawn closer and closer to war, the
President conferred with his emissaries abroad more and more by
scrambler radiotelephone. During the Battle of France he sometimes
spoke with Bullittt several times a day. Characteristically, Roosevelt liked
the telephone because it cut through the red tape of diplomatic routine
and the delays of coding and cabling and because it gave him personal
contact with the speaker. Occasionally he spoke' with Premier Paul
Reynaud, and frequently and increasingly with Churchill.
The President's words sped from the White House to the overseas
switchboard in an A. T. & T. building at 47 Walker Street, New York. In
annaabi.ee 
