FC: Clinton lauds Navajo WWII codetalkers at New Mexico event

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35730,00.html

   Clinton Honors Navajo Heroes
   by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)
   6:00 a.m. Apr. 18, 2000 PDT

   SHIPROCK, NEW MEXICO -- The World War II code was as obscure as
   possible: "wol-la-chee" represented the letter A, but so did
   "be-la-sana" and "tse-nill."

   The letter R also could be transmitted in different ways, using the
   corresponding words for rabbit, ram, and rice, according to a system
   that a group of Navajo "codetalkers" developed in 1942 for the U.S.
   Marine Corps.

   Their efforts at obfuscation led to "countless" military victories,
   President Clinton said Monday at an event where he highlighted the
   accomplishments of the roughly 420 Navajo tribe members turned
   cryptographers who served in WWII.

   "The United States may never have taken Iwo Jima, or won countless
   other battles in the Pacific, if it weren't for the bravery, the
   sacrifice, and the unbreakability of the code of the Navajo code
   talkers," Clinton told a cheering audience of over 10,000 Navajo
   nation members.

   Only perhaps a dozen of the code talkers showed up to the event,
   sitting in the front row in brilliant yellow formal garb. The aging
   code talkers -- the ones who were 20 in 1942 would be nearly 80 now --
   participated in the "digital divide" event as the president's honor
   guard.

   Some of the other remaining code talkers reportedly stayed away from
   the event -- they have eschewed parades and other commemorative
   ceremonies -- to avoid glorifying war.

   [...]

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