TABLE OF CONTENTS David Kahn
ADDRESS: 120 Wooleys Lane, Great Neck NY 11023 USA.
ABSTRACT: Exhaustive research finds little about what solved German and Japanese intercepts went to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II and nothing about how he used them. However, a picture is given of Military Intelligence's Special Branch, which selected and edited the intercepts for presentation to the president and other high officials, and of the intercepts' presentation to and reception by the president.
KEYWORDS: Roosevelt, MAGIC, ULTRA, PURPLE, Special Branch, McCormack, Clarke, and Corderman.
[1]Reprinted with slight changes from Historians and Archivists, ed. George O. Kent (Fairfax, Va.: George Mason University Press, 1991).
What MAGIC and ULTRA information went to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, and how did he use it?
It may as well be said at once that exhaustive research provides only a sketchy answer to the first question and merely unproved hypotheses for the second.
Extant records specify only a few of the solved German and Japanese messages that went to the president. Moreover, no documents or recollections have come to light suggesting any action that he took based on, or even influenced by, these intercepts.
Despite these disappointing results, it may be worthwhile to set out what has been learned about the production of MAGIC (Japanese solutions) and ULTRA (German) and their selection for and presentation to Roosevelt. Doing so will at least outline how one intelligence organization operated in preparing information for the highest authority...
