
NSA posters from the 50s and 60s [pdf] - rinze
http://www.governmentattic.org/28docs/NSAsecurityPosters_1950s-60s.pdf
======
mrob
Anyone recognize the paper tape format on page 103? I wonder if they included
some hidden message in it.

EDIT: I manually transcribed the clearest part of the tape to binary (the
start of the tape is the center of the poster, and it's viewed from behind at
the part I transcribed), and pasted it into the converter at:
[https://v2.cryptii.com/ita2/text](https://v2.cryptii.com/ita2/text)

Binary: "00100 00011 01100 01001 00100 00101 00111 10110 00001 01010 00110
11000 01010 00100 10010 00001 00011 01001 00001 01010 00101 10100 00110 10110
010001 00100 00010 111001 10100 111101 00110 00101 00100 00111 01100 00110
10111 00111 00001 00100 01110 11000 01100 10000 01010 00110 11001 00111 10000
00110 11000 01100 00101 00000 110101 101001 00011 01100 01001 00100 00011
01110 10100 00110 00001 11110 00001 11100 00001 01100 10000 00101 00100 11100
00011 10000 00001 01010 00110 00011 10010 10010 10101 00100 00011 00110 01001
00001 01001 00100 10000 11000"

Decoded: " and superior leadership his unique contributionsand achievements
materially aided to"

Decoded, with the mysterious sixth bits deleted: " and superior leadership
mhvis unique contributionsghand achievements materially aided to"

Unless the sixth bits have some hidden meaning, this appears to be just
management's praise for somebody. It's tedious to transcribe manually, and a
lot of it is unreadable, so I'll stop here.

~~~
fotbr
Looks like standard RTTY (Radioteletype)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioteletype](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioteletype)

------
DonHopkins
A had a few NCSC security posters that look like they came from the same art
department, which I scanned:

Uncle Sam pointing: I want to protect the information in YOUR computer.
[https://i.imgur.com/e0a67w9.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/e0a67w9.jpg)

Santa shooshing: He does not give away PASSWORDS. SHOULD YOU?
[https://i.imgur.com/ZZDXBBn.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/ZZDXBBn.jpg)

Pirate and Spy: Pirate or Thief? Respect Copyright. It's the law.
[https://i.imgur.com/Oa8DDeU.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Oa8DDeU.jpg)

And I took screenshots from that PDF of my favorites:

Magician pulling rabbit out of hat: No Trick to Security. It's Just Common
Sense. [https://i.imgur.com/9EvTtsI.png](https://i.imgur.com/9EvTtsI.png)

People with safe dials in their mouths: Put Security Where Your Mouth Is.
[https://i.imgur.com/WAbAEuM.png](https://i.imgur.com/WAbAEuM.png)

Hot pink poster with James Dean in a sultry pose with his arm draped around a
safe: Up tight and out of sight. (I'll refrain from cracking any safe sex
jokes!) [https://i.imgur.com/dBv13kU.png](https://i.imgur.com/dBv13kU.png)

~~~
weber111
A little off-topic, but clicking imgur "direct" links on mobile redirects you
to the standard m.imgur.com URL now? Eww.

~~~
eganist
They started enforcing this pretty strictly in the last few weeks. It's a
massive turnoff as a service, but considering they're a "social network" now
and not just a reddit-specific image host, it's not a surprise.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Ah, the undending cycle of image hosting services. First they start clean and
useful, then they gradually degrade in an increased effort to be profitable,
then they get replaced by something new that's clean and useful...

~~~
Cthulhu_
Only for as long as initial investor money lasts I guess. There's just no
money to be made in 'free' image hosting without starting to do some nasty
tactics, mostly involving direct (hot) linking.

~~~
TeMPOraL
How do you make money off hot linking? I thought hot linking was the thing
_users_ want to be able to do, that's inherently impossible to monetize.

~~~
marksomnian
Which is why you directly charge the users for it. cf. Photobucket

~~~
TeMPOraL
Which is what makes people not want to use the service, and switch to whoever
allows hotlinking at the moment. That's how imgur came to be.

------
Rebelgecko
Some trippy posters in there. My favorite was the one where all of the NSA
employees had lock mouths.

I was surprised how religious some of these were, beyond just "Merry
Christmas, don't forget about security"

e.g "Christian ideals created freedom"

~~~
hprotagonist
Ivan is an atheist, you see. This way we all know we aren’t soviet.

I’m reasonably convinced that explains a fair bit of the “we are very publicly
religions”part of the 1950s.

~~~
prawn
I've always wondered how the political right in the West ended up with such
seemingly odd bedfellows as capitalism and religion. e.g., the Jesus of
stories seems like a potentially Socialist sort? A friend of mine thought that
it was likely that the pairing was a reaction to the communism and atheism of
the USSR.

~~~
dempseye
This is a common strand within protestantism, imported from northern Europe
into the United States.

It is quite at odds with the catholic view of things and with what Jesus is
reported to have said in the bible.

~~~
lainga
The Calvinist work ethic is less Jesus and more Old Testament: you were born
into sin, you live under the Curse of God, and you'd better work as hard as
you can every day and shun vice or you'll go to hell.

~~~
wahern
That's no different than orthodox Christian theology. Like with a handful of
other unique religions, orthodox Christianity fundamentally put great value
into and encouraged work in the temporal world. In Roman Catholic theology
_science_ \--knowing the physical world through exploration and labor--is at
least in principle an avenue of holy revelation similar to that of the bible
and the Church.

I think the difference is in the shedding of the ancient modes of worship.
Follow Protestant theologies to their logical end and the _only_ way to
_manifest_ piety is through industrious labor. It's not just that work is
prayer; that concept was already present in orthodox Christianity. Work
_becomes_ the religion, rather than being one aspect of a more complex system
of worship.

~~~
lainga
Well, as far as I was taught growing up Roman Catholic, you were supposed to
be faithful and good, and honour God every day, and over time your soul would
be saved through faith and good deeds. In old-school Calvinism, original sin
is upon you until He takes it away, like the bomb in Jackie Chan's mouth in
Rush Hour 2, and he'll just as quickly give it back if you break the faith.

EDIT: not the mark of Cain, duh...

~~~
wahern
I'm not sure that's official Catholic doctrine[1] but in any event compared to
many other religions, and many strains of Christianity (think early Gnostic
sects) it's all splitting hairs. People quibble endlessly over how and why
good works and labor are important--do they _reflect_ salvation or _further_
salvation?--but I don't think those theological distinctions have
substantively effected our political culture. Such minor distinctions are
exaggerated by denominations precisely because of their larger shared
characteristics that require them to work hard at differentiating themselves.
Most of these nuances lose their importance when, e.g., comparing Christianity
to Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism.

[1] AFAIU _official_ Roman Catholic doctrine, as well as most Protestant
faiths, is that salvation _only_ comes from the grace of God; and that the
only sure-fire way of receiving that grace is wholehearted belief in Jesus
Christ as the son of God who died for the remission of sin. But that just begs
the question of what "belief" means, thus the centuries of dispute subsequent
to the domination of Trinitarianism.

~~~
lainga
I was trying to refer to the doctrine of righteousness being infused vs.
imparted.

------
badrabbit
You know,the scary thing about the US intelligence community isn't that they
all are "after out liberties" or "againsy our privacy". My experience and
encounters related to the IC scare me because they genuinely believe they're
the good guys who're on the right side of justice. The real scary part is that
_they_ are scared of what will happen if they don't do something (where
something entails disregarding laws and the will of the people). I would
rather they be "after me" than scared of me.

I hope academics consider this before getting into bed with them. They don't
just have a subersive mission,they're making decisions out of fear.

~~~
schoen
> The real scary part is that they are scared of what will happen if they
> don't do something

In the context of these posters, the implied "what will happen" is mostly
worldwide Communist revolution with the U.S. losing the Cold War. You can see
that for example in the poster depicting the edited version of the Gettysburg
Address, which someone commented on elsewhere in this thread. The concern is
worldwide totalitarianism on the Soviet model, and that's mostly the danger
that these posters are meant to allude to and frighten the NSA staff with. If
you say the wrong thing at Christmas dinner, Communism may win.

That sounds like a joke nowadays, but I'm sure it didn't sound like a joke to
the people who created the posters or the people who saw them every day. Both
sides of the Cold War fought it super-hard.

One problem that the people making the posters left out is that the Cold War
also led to vastly bigger, stronger, more secretive states—including on the
NATO side. It led to creative people being given billions upon billions of
dollars to dream ever-bigger dreams about military and intelligence
capabilities. We still don't even know what some of those dreams were, partly
because generations of classification holders brought up on these posters and
other versions of them have taken them to heart so strongly. So, we've got
states that continue to be extraordinarily ambitious and capable in some ways
that they don't really want anybody to talk about. To me, that's a tragic
legacy of the Cold War. If the people who made the Gettysburg Address poster
were serious in their concern for the state's apotheosis, they might have done
well to also consider how "war is the health of the state"—evidently, whether
it runs hot or cold.

We _kind of_ know about some parts of the nuclear side of that, and we _kind
of_ know about some parts of the espionage and covert action side of that, but
these parts all kind of hurt to think about and the people who've dreamt and
are still dreaming those billion-dollar dreams would mostly just as soon that
we didn't go too far down the rabbit holes.

~~~
dredmorbius
Any particular background on any of this you might recommend?

------
Palomides
just mirrored to imgur:
[https://imgur.com/a/30Co0Q2](https://imgur.com/a/30Co0Q2)

------
meric
I hope the "That this nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that
government of the _state_ by the _state_ for the _state_ shall not perish from
the Earth" (with "under God" struck out) poster meant something other than its
literal meaning...

~~~
schoen
It was alluding to the risk of Communism.

------
doommius
If the there higher res of these? I'm considering printing some and hanging
around.

------
Iv
"Men must be governed by God or they will be rules by tyrans"

Ah... O tempora, o mores...

~~~
jhanschoo
Heh, Cicero wouldn't have said that himself; he was a republican and would
advocate for the rule and freedom of the patricians and senators, rather than
mob rule or kingly rule. Theocratic rulership was definitely out of the
question.

------
walshemj
Like the way the use Big Ben (Elizabeth Tower) as an example of those
dangerous subversive places where beat combos run wild.

------
wodenokoto
In what context did these exist?

Were they posted on streets or in schools? Or were they internal posters, hung
around NSA offices?

------
schoen
And also the 70s, seemingly, even though the request didn't specify that.

~~~
drfuchs
Specifically, 6614806 is clearly from 1970. And that's John Travolta from
1977's "Saturday Night Fever" in 6614848.

Also interesting that there are various images of paper and filing cabinets,
but no computers or terminals.

------
strictnein
Wish I could get some of these full sized and in original quality.

~~~
2bitencryption
would definitely hang up a few of these in the office if they were good scans

------
jugg1es
These are amazing. So many to choose from.

------
HoochTHX
Some of those are very disturbing.

~~~
bigiain
" ... government of the state, by the state, for the state ... "

(The more things change, the more they stay the same...)

~~~
saagarjha
I'm pretty sure that one was meant to show communism, with "under God" cross
out and people replaced with state, supposedly with the blood of the
revolution.

------
RoyWynn
Kind of unnerving how a lot of those propaganda posters would be almost ironic
to use in today's societal setting; or maybe its more unsettling how most
people today don't care about having their rights infringed upon.

------
flashman
What strikes me (besides NSA apparently meaning 'Non-Secular Americans') is
that a lot of these posters don't have the design flair and inspiration of,
say, WWII propaganda posters.

~~~
user982
The NSA's existence was still not publicly acknowledged when some of these
were commissioned (the versatile initialism then being "No Such Agency"),
which may have shrunk the artist pool.

------
rootw0rm
what on earth is with the black telephone hanging by a noose? some of these
are pretty interesting.

~~~
user982
"Hang up the phone."

~~~
madaxe_again
Spot the person who spent their childhood watching
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catchphrase_(UK_game_show)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catchphrase_\(UK_game_show\))

------
AdamM12
Pretty dope. Downloading these. Might have them wide format printed to hang at
my house.

------
argestes
What does poster on page 25 (No: 20, ID 6614809) mean and who is that guy?

~~~
enigmango
More info: After messing around with the image levels, the faded text shows as
"Eternal Vigilance is the price of Liberty" (a quote which has been
incorrectly attributed to numerous famous figures:
[https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/eternal-
vigilance-...](https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/eternal-vigilance-
price-liberty-spurious-quotation))

([https://i.imgur.com/hkKrb8o.png](https://i.imgur.com/hkKrb8o.png))

------
nagbava
Simple question about these (great) posters : whats their legal statuts
regarding IP ? Possible use for commercial purpose ? Obligation to mention the
source ? I'd love to use them for presentation about security.

Any link to information about that would be very welcome too.

~~~
novium
This should be applicable
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_th...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government)

~~~
nagbava
"The U.S. government asserts that it can still hold the copyright to those
works in other countries."

Going a little further I read : "the U.S. Government may obtain protection in
other countries depending on the treatment of government works by the national
copyright law of the particular country." (from the CENDI FAQ), which is
adequate with private international law.

Anyway, thank you !

------
apotatopot
can someone adjust the colors so printing them wouldn't take so much ink? I
don't have the skill.

------
jimmy1
Might be tangibly related -- and honestly I have no dog in this fight -- but
it seems that a certain sect of our political parties really are trying to
eliminate or counter the narrative that America was founded on Judeo-Christian
values must have complete blinders on when it comes to history of this
country, and just flipping through some posters from the 50's and 60s made it
very apparent that it was the prevailing value in this country. Say what you
want for bigotry, the patriarchy, or whathaveyounot, but you cannot deny the
impact, and the unifying value system this country used to all share which is
yet another reason, among many, for the large divisions in our society today.

~~~
st26
I probably shouldn't bother, but-

America was founded by a bunch of Christians, and some of the country's
construction surely was influenced by that.

However America was NOT founded as a Christian state.

Where the left & right butt heads over this is usually when, for example, pro-
lifers say _" God clearly forbids abortion and America is a Christian state so
our laws must follow the Bible"_, and pro-choicers say _" Uh, no, this is not
a Christian state, the Bible does not set our laws"_.

~~~
jimmy1
And this is NOT what I am saying, I said it was founded on Judeo-Christian
principles.

~~~
wnoise
It was founded on Enlightenment principles, some of which are deliberately
conflated with Judeo-Christian principles, but are actually quite distinct.

------
bunkydoo
? doesnt load

~~~
mirimir
It's a _huge_ pdf. Maybe just download in background.

------
philip1209
> "Don't TALK yourself to death!"

That's macabre - I interpret it as "leak classified information and we will
kill you"

~~~
flyingfences
I think it's more of a "leak classified information and they'll find out how
to kill all of us".

