Live data from Hacker News

NSA posters from the 50s and 60s [pdf]

governmentattic.org

41–50 of 117 posts

Re: NSA posters from the 50s and 60s [pdf]

#41
post #13

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"

To be honest I'm not particularly surprised that there's a religious undercurrent to them. I don't exactly know how to quantify it, but as an outsider that's just sort of how I'd expect US propaganda posters to be. The US has always been particularly outwardly religious, so I guess I sort of expect it to play to those sensibilities when making these.

Today, it's hilariously illegal to put this kind of thing in an official employee communication. No government agency would even dream it.

Even in the 1960s, that kind of overtly religious appeal would have been very, VERY controversial. This kind of material _never_ appeared in military stuff, and I am very surprised to see it in NSA publications.

Re: NSA posters from the 50s and 60s [pdf]

#42
post #20

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 Binary: "00100 00011 01100 01001 00100 00101 00111 10110 00001 01010…

It looks like the sixth bit is used as rubout (even though per wikipedia, the 0x1f code, letter-shift, was normally used for that purpose).

Re: NSA posters from the 50s and 60s [pdf]

#43
post #41
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest I'm not particularly surprised that there's a religious undercurrent to them. I don't exactly know how to quantify it, but as an outsider that's just sort of how I'd expect US propaganda posters to be. The US has always been particularly outwardly religious, so I guess I sort of expect it to play to those sensibilities when making these.

Today, it's hilariously illegal to put this kind of thing in an official employee communication. No government agency would even dream it. Even in the 1960s, that kind of overtly religious appeal would have been very, VERY controversial. This kind of material _never_ appeared in military stuff, and I am very surprised to see it in NSA publications.

It was the Red Scare. We added “under God” to the pledge of allegiance on the theory that undercover commies would explode if they tried to say it. I’m not surprised.

Re: NSA posters from the 50s and 60s [pdf]

#45
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...

Re: NSA posters from the 50s and 60s [pdf]

#47
post #41
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest I'm not particularly surprised that there's a religious undercurrent to them. I don't exactly know how to quantify it, but as an outsider that's just sort of how I'd expect US propaganda posters to be. The US has always been particularly outwardly religious, so I guess I sort of expect it to play to those sensibilities when making these.

Today, it's hilariously illegal to put this kind of thing in an official employee communication. No government agency would even dream it. Even in the 1960s, that kind of overtly religious appeal would have been very, VERY controversial. This kind of material _never_ appeared in military stuff, and I am very surprised to see it in NSA publications.

> Even in the 1960s, that kind of overtly religious appeal would have been very, VERY controversial. This kind of material _never_ appeared in military stuff...

The Air Force barred an airman from reenlisting because he would not say "so help me God" in his oath, in 2014.[0]

[0]: https://www.yahoo.com/news/atheist-must-swear-god-leave-us-a...

Re: NSA posters from the 50s and 60s [pdf]

#49

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 Santa shooshing: He does not give away PASSWORDS. SHOULD YOU? https://i.imgur.com/ZZDXBBn.jpg Pirate and Spy: Pirate or Thief? Respect Copyright. It's the law. https://i.imgur.com/Oa8DDeU.jpg And I took screens…

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

They've been doing this for a while now; at least requesting the desktop site will still redirect you back to the actual image.

Still enough for me to dislike any imgur link, however.

Re: NSA posters from the 50s and 60s [pdf]

#50
post #45

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...

It was alluding to the risk of Communism.
Post reply on HN