Never an Empire (35 page)

This more or less set the pattern for US Intelligence where, at certain times and under certain circumstances, highly placed individuals would deem it expedient to move outside the law or fail to inform the president or Congress. The spirit of President James K. Polk: that the Secret Service must remain unanswerable for its actions to Congressional oversight, had somehow spread out to include oversight by the White House.

After hostilities ceased in 1918 there were considerable political efforts to rein in the growth of the US Intelligence services but, as America was emerging as a new superpower and had an expanding diplomatic presence across the globe, the need for diplomatic security ensured that the Secret Service continued to grow. However, the 1929 stock market crash and subsequent depression put huge pressure on all government budgets and Security Services were not spared. In 1933 the Department of State abolished nearly all of what was left of its diplomatic courier services. The state of US government finance was such that it was said that when the French government offered to transport diplomatic pouches free of charge from Le Havre to Paris the US Embassy refused the offer as it couldn't afford the taxi fares for Embassy personnel to retrieve the pouches from the railway stations when they arrived. Another victim of government cuts was a counter-intelligence, code-breaking department founded by US code clerk Herbert O. Yardley in 1917. The department, known as the Black Chamber, was axed in 1929 partly to save money but also because in essence its role was to spy on foreign governments, even friendly ones. Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson was concerned that this sort of counterintelligence work might compromise the Department's main purpose: that of diplomacy. Stimson considered himself an honourable man and saw the bedrock of diplomacy as gentlemen dealing with gentlemen. In connection with the demise of the Black Chamber he famously said, ‘Gentlemen do not read each other's mail.'

In 1931 Yardley, struggling to support his family in the Depression, published a book about his work entitled
The American Black Chamber
, in which he described the clandestine work done by his department. His book was an instant success worldwide and caused an outcry in the US because it revealed the extent to which the US had intercepted and deciphered confidential Japanese government messages. The response of Washington was to pass Public Law 37, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt in June 1933 which made it a crime for any former government employee to publish or share confidential information pertaining to past or present diplomatic codes and confidential diplomatic correspondence. Yardley, unable to continue with his second book on the same subject, left the US and established cryptological bureaus for the Chinese from 1938 to 1940 and Canadians from 1940 to 1941.

The Second World War was looming and when Pearl Harbour exploded the US into the conflict the intelligence services exploded as well.

Which brings me to the fifth and final book in this series:
Winston's Witch
.

I am indebted to the US State Department for the information on which the above text is based.

James Green

Agents of Independence Series

Another Small Kingdom

A Union Not Blessed

The Eagle Turns

Never an Empire

Winston's Witch

For more information about
James Green

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Accent Press
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Published by Accent Press Ltd 2016

ISBN 9781682994108

Copyright © James Green 2016

The right of James Green to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The story contained within this book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers: Accent Press Ltd, Ty Cynon House, Navigation Park, Abercynon, CF45 4SN