Yardley, Herbert Osborne

Yardley, Herbert Osborne (1889–1958) born in Worthington, Indiana, the cryptographer responsible for the U.S.'s first official code-breaking activities during and following World War I. He entered the U.S. State Department at 23 as a coding clerk, but was soon recommending ways to improve and protect U.S. codes. By 1917, he was in charge of MI8, the code-breaking group of the Military Intelligence Division. When the war ended, he suggested a permanent code-breaking organization, and, in 1919, a joint agency of the State Department and the military was created, with Yardley at its head. In spite of its successful breaking of the Japanese diplomatic code in 1921, the group was generally ignored or attacked by government officials, and was disbanded after several years. Unable to find work, Yardley published The American Black Chamber (1931), a best-seller, and nineteen nations changed their diplomatic codes. At the request of Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Nationalist leader, he went to China to break the Japanese army's codes and remained there until 1940, when he went to Canada and established his own cryptology service.