Tim writes:

Also, much other evidence points to the NSA having "gone public" much farther back in time than 18-30 months ago. Former DIRNSAs on the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour were always introduced as former directors of the NSA. As early as the mid-80s, as I recollect. I think Bamford's book pretty much outed the name, though it was widely known before that, of course.

Datapoint: My 1967 HB copy of The Codebreakers discusses the agency, and includes a photo of the HQ. Peter Trei Senior Software Engineer Purveyor Development Team Process Software Corporation http://www.process.com trei@process.com