25 January 1962: HYDRA Wartime Planning

Maintaining HYDRA in the event of an emergency required input from, and coordination with the British authorities. In this letter to John Starnes (External Affairs, Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee), Hugh Stephenson (U.K. Foreign Office) notes that the British authorities are indeed planning on making arrangements for the HYDRA U.K. terminal in the event of a war – though he is not sure what arrangements the Americans are making to do the same. Stephenson proposes an additional solution to protecting HYDRA radio communications: the provision of “crystals” (crystal radio sets, which date from the early days of radio and do not require power for operation).