The Puzzle Palace (1982)

Bamford shattered decades of institutional silence with this pioneering investigative exposé into the National Security Agency, prompting federal threats of prosecution under espionage laws. The text details clandestine listening posts, secret transatlantic cable taps, and the gargantuan cryptanalytic supercomputers hidden at Fort Meade. It reads like a breathless investigative thriller that first unveiled the terrifying global scale of modern signals intelligence.