"Vietnam era/Secret Service radio com questions" Topic
7 Posts
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Bad General | 02 Sep 2016 7:55 a.m. PST |
Hello all – doing research and TMP is always a trove. -How would secure messages from SE Asia to Washington be sent? Through Saigon? Through an aircraft carrier? Could secure messages be sent from the field? What kind of equipment was used? -What kind of radio com gear did the Secret Service use in the late 60's? Was it secure? |
Ed Mohrmann | 02 Sep 2016 2:30 p.m. PST |
SE Asia = a fairly sizable place. Do you mean V'nam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, etc., etc.? Generally, comm to DC would be through embassies, each of which had, generally speaking, decent (for the period) encryption gear, KW-26=based. I don't know why you're asking about Secret Service comm. The SS would not, generally speaking, be 'talking' from another country to DC. Oh, and to answer 'was it secure' I was taught in Crypto school that 'What the mind of man can imagine, the mind of another man can figure out' As we see in today's hacker adventures, ain't no such thing as secure unless you are talking about molecular- decay based encryption algorithms |
Bad General | 02 Sep 2016 3:03 p.m. PST |
Researching Mrs. Kennedy's 1967 trip to Cambodia. Sizable SS detail. |
Ed Mohrmann | 02 Sep 2016 5:11 p.m. PST |
OK, you mean what's called today the "Executive Security" portion of the Secret Service – which is not part of the Presidential detail. Not sure why the SS of that era would need secure radio comm within/among its own detail members. IIRC, they used a version of the Armed Forces hand- held radios, fairly short ranged (security of a sort) but without any sophisticated scrambler or encryption capability. If they'd needed secure LD comm, they would have gone through consular or embassy assets Given the situation in Cambodia at the time, I can understand the 'sizeable detail,' although a portion could have been junketing |
Mako11 | 02 Sep 2016 8:31 p.m. PST |
Top level spooks might have satellite comms, I suspect. Datalink for the Swedish Air Force was available back then, in their Viggens, so I suspect the USAF/others had it too. IIRC, F-102s and F-106s could be controlled from the ground to the target, and back again, remotely, so if they can do that, they can send messages directly via satellites too. Yes, they would be encrypted. |
Panfilov | 03 Sep 2016 3:36 a.m. PST |
Look up "Nestor (Encryption)" on Wikipedia. VINSON reached V Corps HQ in Germany sometime in 1980. No Satcoms during the Vietnam era, RTT (Radio Teletype) was still through tropospheric bounce. No Transpacific microwave towers… What was the secure RTT System? Old guy syndrome, don't remember the name. Be aware, the network TV footage from Vietnam was actual film, developed and flown across the Pacific daily to CONUS, for editing and broadcast. I think (speculate) the network news was distributed to affiliates through microwave relay, not my area of expertize. Thus the various "Lost" TV shows, there was no video tape ever made/preserved. |
Bad General | 03 Sep 2016 5:00 a.m. PST |
Ok, great, thank you, gentlemen. |
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