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Chair: Dr Aviva Guttman, Visiting Researcher in Intelligence and International Security, War Studies Department

Speaker: Betsy Rohaly Smoot, award-winning historian in cryptology and formerly based at the Center for Cryptologic History (CCH)

 

This is a Women’s Intelligence Brown Bag Network event

 

The great cryptologist William F. Friedman called Parker Hitt “the father of American military cryptology” but Hitt, despite inventing several cipher devices and writing Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers never considered himself a cryptologist.

Award winning historian, Betsy Rohaly Smoot, will explore her forthcoming book Parker Hitt: The Father of American Military Cryptology. Betsy will discuss the careers of both Hitt and his wife Genevieve Young Hitt (the first woman to break codes and ciphers for the US government), with a focus on his cryptologic work, his brief time as a practitioner of HUMINT and in 1921, his time serving as the Assistant Chief of Staff for Military Intelligence (G2) for the Second Corps Area. She will relate how Hitt contributed to success of the American Expeditionary Forces’ signals intelligence effort and why William Friedman was correct in his assessment of Hitt’s career.

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Bio

Betsy Rohaly Smoot, an award-winning historian who specialises in cryptologic issues, particularly pertaining to World War I, the Cold War and early female cryptologists. She retired from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2017 after more than ten years as a historian in the Center for Cryptologic History (CCH). Prior to her time in CCH, she worked in analytic, staff, and managerial positions both at Fort Meade and overseas. Mrs. Smoot received a BA from Mary Washington College with a double major in Geography and an Economics, and an MS in Strategic Intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College.

At this event

Avia Guttmann

Visiting Researcher in Intelligence and International Security