TheCodeBreakers
She
had dissembled with diplomatic conversations and with jabs toward the
south. She had—ir a precaution whose wisdom she but dimly realized—
swathed her plans in a communications security so all enveloping that
not a whisper of them ever floated ont< the airwaves.
But if the cryptanalysts had no chance to warn of th< attack and save
American lives before the war, they foum ample opportunities to exert
their subtle and pervasivr talents during the struggle. In the 1,350 days
of conflici in which an angry America turned Japan's tactical victory at
Pearl Harbor into total strategic defeat, the cryptanalysts, in the words of
the Joint Congressional Committee, "contributed enormously to the
defeat of the enemy, greatly shortened the war, and saved many
thousands of lives."
That, however, is another story.
3. The First 3,000 Years
ON A DAY nearly 4,000 years ago, in a town called Menet Khufu
bordering the thin ribbon of the Nile, a master scribe sketched out the
annaabi.ee 
