Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence

for use by the American army. Yardley accompanied the American mis-

sion to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 as chief cryptologist.

With the war over, the American government considered disband-

ing MI-8 but instead renamed it the Cipher Bureau and placed Yard-

ley in charge of it. The Cipher Bureau was funded jointly by the War

Department and the State Department. As a covert action, the cipher

bureau set up operations in New York City under cover as the Code

Compilation Company, which produced commercial codes. Its New

York location gave it easy access to message sources, such as West-

ern Union, that later became participants in Operation Shamrock.

Yardley, who had named his cryptologic operations the Black

Chamber, enjoyed great success. In December 1919, it broke the

Japanese diplomatic code, which allowed the United States to have

access to the negotiating instructions given to Japanese delegations.

He was also hired in 1928 by Chiang Kai-shek’s government in China

and then by the Canadian government to make and break codes. How-

ever, Yardley’s bureau was closed in 1929 when Secretary of State

Henry Stimson concluded, “gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.”

By that time, the Cipher Bureau had read more than 45,000 secret

telegrams from more than 20 countries.

Now unemployed, Yardley wrote his memoir, The American Black

Chamber.It was first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post and then

published as a book. The U.S. government denied the existence of the

Cipher Bureau, and the Japanese government quickly redesigned its

communications codes. Later in his life, Yardley would go on to write

several novels that involved cryptology.

YURCHENCKO, VITALY SERGEYEVICH (1936– ). Vitaly

Yurchenko was a Soviet KGBofficer who defected to the United

States in August 1985 and later redefected to the Soviet Unionin No-

vember 1985. Yurchenko gave the Central Intelligence Agency

(CIA) information that identified Ronald Pelton, an officer of the Na-

tional Security Agency (NSA), as the person who betrayed Opera-

tion Ivy Bellsto the Soviet Union. Yurchenko also gave the CIA

valuable information on KGB operatives around the world.

Following his defection, Yurchenko became increasingly disen-

chanted with the CIA’s restrictions on his movement around Wash-

ington, D.C. He also worried about the fate of his wife and child in

the Soviet Union. On 2 November 1985, he evaded his CIAminders

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