John Foster: The role of spying and the C.I.A.

      The United States of America declared its independence from England in the late 18^th century, 1776 to be exact. From that point forward any information gathering useful for the new nation was done by celebrities like Ben Franklin, politicians visiting abroad and ambassadors to other nations. They would visit learn information and bring it back to the U.S.

      The newly formed government believed in isolating themselves from the issues in Europe, so spying was not considered necessary. Though “spying on your allies has long been a staple of international diplomacy -- dating back to the first embassies established by 16th century Italian city-states.” (Khazan, 2013) The United States was a more civilized nation. By the late 19^th century, spying was maladroit or uncivilized. Henry L. Stimson (a former secretary of state under President Taft) was quoted stating, “Men do not read each other’s mail.” (Schmitz, 2000)

  Photo 1- John W. Foster- March 2, 1836 – November 15, 1917    

      One of the first American statesman to set a process for state intelligence was John W. Foster. He was employed by the State Department under President Harrison’s administration. The last 6 months of the president’s term, he became Secretary of State. During this period, he orchestrated the overthrow of the Hawaiian government of Queen Liliuokalani. Setting up a U.S. provisional government to rule in its place. He first tried to buy the islands for $250,000. In today’s dollars that is about $7.5 million dollars. Native Queen Liliuokalani refused. She indicated on January 14, 1893, that she was going to declare a new constitution favorable to native Hawaiians. By January 16^th, U.S. marines marched on shore from the USS Boston for the protection of the U.S. Legation and the U.S. Consulate to protect the rights of American citizens that resided there. (Devine, 1977) John W. Foster propagated a takeover of a sovereign nation.

     After leaving office, he set up the first agency for the lobbying of congressional members. It was a new kind of legal office to help corporations to appeal to the members of congress for issues they had running their businesses. Next, he became a traveling statesman. He negotiated trade agreements with 8 countries, a treaty between Britain and Russia over seal hunting in the Bering Sea, and brokered the first treaty between Japan and China in 1895 called the ‘Treaty of Shimonoseki’. During this treaty Qing China recognized the independence of Korea and ceded Taiwan to Japan for winning the war. In the style of diplomats like Ben Franklin he traveled the world gaining information and creating alliances with other nations.

     John W. Foster would become famous for developing the spying agency of the United States in another way. His daughter Edith would marry a presbyterian minister named Allen Macy Dulles. Edith and Allen Dulles would have two sons that achieved prominence in the United States.  John Foster Dulles, was Secretary of State to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Allen Welsh Dulles would become the first director of the C.I.A. I will do separate blogs on these characters later. The boys were heavily influenced by Grandfather John W. Foster, and their life choices were a direct result of their relationship with him.

     The code breakers

       Before the internet, there were telegraphs. Telegraphs are machine that use a process of sending messages between people and places. In the 20^th century radio frequency was used to send these messages. Samuel Morse (artist), American Physicist Joseph Henry and mechanical engineer Alfred Vail developed an electrical telegraph system. Then Morse developed a code system, a method used to encode text. (Burns, 2004) The code assigned characters sequences of two signal durations called dots and dashes or dits and dahs. I was watching ‘North by Northwest’ a movie set in the 1960’s. During one of the first few scenes Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is meeting some men for business. He called a concierge over to his table and asked him to send a telegram (sent by telegraph) to his secretary. He wanted to let her know his mother would not be home to phone her, as Thornhill had instructed the secretary to do. Demonstrating an impromptu and diverse usage for the invention. (Hitchcock, 1959)

       Governments used these telegraphs to hide codes in messages. They sent messages encoded to allies. They spied on other governments by using people called ‘code breakers’ to decode messages intercepted that contained valuable information. In at least one instance during 20^th century, the U.S. government used surveillance and code cracking to win a diplomatic victory against Japan during an international meeting.

Photo 2- Herbert O Yardley

       Herbert Yardley was a railroad telegrapher and during WWI he worked for the U.S. Army in the cryptographic section of MI-8. MI-8 was disbanded after the war. Yardley became the leader of the Black Chamber (also known as the Cipher Bureau) in 1919.  It was funded by the Army and the State Department. The headquarters was disguised as a New York commercial code company. At first the American telegraph companies supported the effort until 1927. The Radio Act of 1927 enhanced prosecution of criminal offenses for breaching confidentiality of telegraph messages. At that time, the U.S. State Department withdrew their funding, and the U.S. Army could not afford the costs, so the bureau was closed. (Khazan, 2013) The Black Chamber was the earliest formal spying agency.

Photo 3 

      John W. Foster though achieved his mission of gaining information. It was done in a polite and antiquated way. During WWII and immediately afterward, the world of espionage would advance. Which would lead to a powerful off-the-books funded agency. The next blog in this series will tell the story of his grandson Allen Dulles. Dulles would end up as the first director of the world renown Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A,)

1. Khazan, Olga, (2013), Gentlemen Reading Each Other’s Mail: A Brief History of Diplomatic Spying, The Atlantic magazine, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/06/gentlemen-reading-each-others-mail-a-brief-history-of-diplomatic-spying/276940/
2. Schmitz, David, (2000), Henry L. Stimson: The First Wise Man, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers
3. Burns, R.W. (2004). Communications: An international history of the formative years. Institution of Electrical Engineers.
4. Devine, M. (1977). John W. Foster and the Struggle for the Annexation of Hawaii. Pacific Historical Review,46(1), 29-50.
5. Kahn, David (1996). The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing. New York: Scribner. p. 352.
6. Bamford, James, (2008), The Shadow Factory: the Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on American, New York: Knopf Doubleday publishing group.
7. Hitchcock, Alfred, (1959), North by Northwest, Metro Goldwyn MayerPhoto- 1 John W. Foster,https://www.publicrecordsofficial.comPhoto- 2 Herbert O YardleyPhoto- 3 emblem of Central Intelligence Agency, https://youviewed.com/tag/cia/