The Puzzle Palace - Reviews and Reception

Reviews and Reception

The New York Times reviewed the book favorably, writing that "Until now no one has published a comprehensive and detailed report on the agency. The quality and depth of Mr. Bamford's research are remarkable." The review concluded, "By revealing the scope and opening up the operations of the N.S.A. without giving away its most sensitive secrets, Mr. Bamford has performed an important public service in this impressive book."

In a review of Shane Harris' book The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State, New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau described The Puzzle Palace as "the benchmark study of the N.S.A. first pulled back the curtain to provide a glint of unwanted sunlight on the place". Michael Duffy, reviewing Bamford's 2004 book Pretext for War, wrote in Time magazine that The Puzzle Palace "is still considered the classic account of the mysterious National Security Agency."

The Puzzle Palace has been generally well received by experts, and has been used as a textbook at the Defense Intelligence Agency's National Intelligence University. The NSA itself says the book "brought a new focus to the efforts of journalists and independent writers to break down the Agency's vaunted anonymity," and describes the book as "the most significant breach in NSA's anonymity since David Kahn's The Codebreakers in 1967." In the years between the book's publication and 9/11, the relationship between Bamford and the NSA grew less adversarial. The NSA cooperated with Bamford on a later book titled Body of Secrets, and in April 2001 the NSA hosted a book-signing event for Bamford at their Maryland headquarters. Bamford was critical of NSA actions in the years following 9/11, and the relationship between the two once again cooled.