Comments on: Nevada Test Site’s “Arnold” OPSEC Videos

By: Mike Lehman

Mike Lehman — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:11:52 +0000

Alex,
Most likely was generally used in full — operational security. Shortening to Op-Sec sounds like a development of the TV Age, where everything gets re-termed into shorthand. Certainly the Cold War tendency towards acronyms for virtually any and every common phrase was also a factor.

I also suspect that “Arnold Operational Security” would’ve been a mouthful — and not nearly as applicable to a cartoon mascot — although I can also virtually visualize a memo with the Subject heading:
The Necessity of Animating Arnold Operation Security to Enhance Security Culture

Fortunately, someone at this imagined committee meeting had an extra cup of coffee and said, “Are you really going to call him THAT?”

By: Alex Wellerstein

Alex Wellerstein — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:14:46 +0000

Thanks, Mike! Did they actually call it Op-Sec or Operations Security? The AEC seems to have always put this sort of thing under a generic “Security” heading (and this was the work of the Security Division). My invocation of the 1970s was just as the emergence of the acronym, but I thoroughly acknowledge that its appearance in the public lexicon is not necessarily the same as its appearance in the classified or even just governmental lexicon.

By: Mike Lehman

Mike Lehman — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:32:36 +0000

I believe the concept of Op-Sec is older than the 1970s. IIRC, there were references to this in the Manhattan Project itself. But the origins of it are military and specifically in the counter-intelligence field. Given that, prior to nuclear weapons, counter-intelligence was right up there with signals intelligence as the most deeply hidden of government secrets, I suspect there was a general reluctance to openly discuss Op-Sec, even behind closed doors.

By the 1970s, popular culture had outed Op-Sec as a concept (James Bond, Dr. Strangelove and a bunch of spy novels, including John LaCarre) so it made sense to make more specific internal references to it within the compartmentalized world beyond the intelligence community itself.

Sorry I can’t provide a specific cite to peg down the earlier provenance. I am a fan of Arnold, although you hope he only represented who the AEC, etc might like to leave its service ASAP.

By: Will Thomas

Will Thomas — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:34:56 +0000

Charles: World War II was the ur-source of this stuff! Disney was big-time into instructional films. Here's OPSEC Arnold's grandfather, Pvt. Snafu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJn_aB4FjpI Also, a great film about saving bacon grease, starring Minnie and Pluto. An interesting tangent: in my book I mention a RAND Corporation researcher who was trying to figure out how to model ground combat; after he asked some generals to reenact how the flow of a battle might go, he remarked that he thought Disney could animate it beautifully. Decades later, he would have had recourse to the notion of computer graphics for modelling troop movements, but, at the time, Disney was the gold standard for innovative visuals. It's also worth pointing out that during World War II, he had actually designed stop-motion films for teaching gunners on bombers how to aim at fighters.

By: Charles Day

Charles Day — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:24:55 +0000

I wonder when public service messages began to be conveyed through childish cartoons? World War II posters that warned against leaking info had adult art. Makes me wonder if CIA employees have to watch movies that feature Simon the Cyber Security Squirrel or other silly mascot.