Thesis
"A view from a window at Riverbank." George-C Marshall Foundation.
The spread of fascism in South America at the dawn of World War II was orchestrated by Nazi spy rings, which remained virtually undetectable until the involvement of Elizebeth Friedman, an American cryptanalyst. Even with the placement of multiple gender-related barriers, she managed to successfully decipher thousands of foreign codes and communicate the Nazi’s intentions to the FBI, not only preventing the fall of the western hemisphere but also establishing her place in history as a female pioneer of military intelligence.
Elizebeth S. Friedman in front of a gate. George-C Marshall Foundation.
“I am never quite so gleeful as when I am doing something labeled as an ‘ought not.’ Why is it? Am I abnormal? Why should something with a risk in it give me an exuberant feeling inside me? I don’t know what it is unless it is that characteristic which makes so many people remark that I should have been born a man.”
-Elizebeth Friedman