Declassification and What Followed

The Navajo Code Talker program was declassified in 1968, twenty-three years after the end of World War II.

The declassification came as part of a broader review of classified wartime programs, and it was not accompanied by significant public fanfare — there was no announcement designed to call attention to the program or to the men who had served in it.

The men who were still living in 1968 learned that they were now free to speak about what they had done.

Some did.

They gave interviews.