[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 56 (Monday, April 1, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S2121]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 133--HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF ELIZEBETH SMITH 
                         FRIEDMAN, CRYPTANALYST

  Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mrs. Fischer) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 133

       Whereas Elizebeth Smith Friedman was born on August 26, 
     1892, in Huntington, Indiana;
       Whereas, at 19 years of age, Friedman began to study Greek 
     and English literature at Wooster College in Ohio and later 
     graduated from Hillsdale College in Michigan after 
     transferring there;
       Whereas Friedman stumbled upon her career as a codebreaker 
     by accident after assisting with cipher research at the 
     Riverbank facility of businessman George Fabyan;
       Whereas, in the 1920s, government agents recruited Friedman 
     to break codes for the Coast Guard;
       Whereas, based on her work, the Coast Guard subsequently 
     asked Friedman to form a group to decrypt intercepts;
       Whereas, in the early 1930s, Friedman created and managed 
     the first codebreaking unit ever to be run by a woman;
       Whereas, during World War II, Friedman and her team in the 
     Coast Guard, working simultaneously with, but independently 
     of, the well-known British codebreaking group led by Alan 
     Turing, broke the Enigma G machine used by Germany, enabling 
     the decryption of intercepted messages between German 
     operatives in South America and their overseers in Berlin, 
     thus stopping an alliance between Nazi Germany and countries 
     in South America;
       Whereas Friedman co-authored several of the Riverbank 
     Publications, which became the ``textbook'' for training 
     individuals in the United States on encryption and 
     codebreaking from the 1930s to the 1950s;
       Whereas J. Edgar Hoover of the Federal Bureau of 
     Investigation took credit for the achievements of Friedman 
     and her team, leaving her work widely unrecognized until 
     after her death;
       Whereas, in the 1990s, to honor the contributions of both 
     Friedman and her husband, who was also a codebreaker, the 
     National Security Agency renamed its auditorium as the 
     William F. Friedman and Elizebeth S. Friedman Memorial 
     Auditorium;
       Whereas Elizebeth Smith Friedman continues to be a beacon 
     of inspiration for women in the national security community 
     and for women pursuing STEM-related fields;
       Whereas the work of individuals such as Elizebeth Smith 
     Friedman distinctly shows how strong encryption technology 
     can change the course of history; and
       Whereas Elizebeth Smith Friedman died on October 31, 1980, 
     leaving behind a legacy of remarkable skill and technical 
     ingenuity, woven together to solve the most complex secret 
     messages in the world: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate honors the life and contributions 
     of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a pioneer in codebreaking.

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