Secrecy The American Experience By Senator Daniel P. Moynihan Essays

Secrecy: The American Experience? By Senator Daniel P. Moynihan According to a survey performed for the Defense Department in 1996, it was found that the majority of U.S. citizens believe that the government withholds too much information by classifying it as a secret. In this book, ?Secrecy: The American Experience?, Senator Daniel P. Moynihan reinforces that view. This is a distinctive book with numerous weaknesses, some errors, and one great strength. The weakness is that the book shows controversial arguments rather than a policy analysis. Moynihan has a particular view he wants to advance, and he is not interested in considering alternate explanations or exploring evidence that is contradictory with his view. Moynihan marks the start of modern secrecy with the Espionage Act. Most of the distinctive features of twentieth-century secrecy are rooted in the program to build the atomic bomb, including vast secret budgets and cover stories. I particularly enjoyed the book in that it told the truth of past events. I did not like that the book was written from only Moynihan's point of view and did not discuss other opinions. I enjoyed the book because it is nonfiction and reveals the truth of secrecy in America. Most importantly I found it interesting that this book was written by Senator Moynihan rather than by an ordinary person who would make many assumptions in order to write a book about secrecy. This US senator from New York analyzes the roots of America's obsession with government secrecy and pleads for it's dismantling. This book is not primarily an insider's account of the Government in action. It is, more ambitiously, a historical assessment of the ?culture of secrecy,? particularly in the area of foreign policy. Moynihan cites the CIA's failure to forecast the end of the Soviet Union as yet another deviation caused by secrecy. In his view, the CIA simply failed at its most important task. It is possible that all of those who argue to the contrary are mistaken, but Moynihan does not explain why or even acknowledge that there is a debate. In any case, the relevance of this controversy to government secrecy is weak; since CIA estimates of the Soviet Union economy are among the least secretive items it produced. Secrecy is heavily weighted toward the past. More than half the book is devoted to the period before 1950. Here too there are problems. Moynihan believes he has proved that President Harry Truman was never told about the secret army program known as Venona, which successfully decrypted Soviet communications and provided documentary evidence of Soviet espionage against the United States. There is circumstantial evidence that Truman was not informed about Venona, but Moynihan has not proved the negative. In 1996, the number of new secrets dropped to the lowest in recent decades. Never before has so much information about national security been so easily available to so many. How and why this came to pass is a story that has never been fully told, and it is not mentioned at all in this book. Daniel Patrick Moynihan draws two conclusions from his study of the way America keeps its secrets. If the federal government had revealed all it knew about Soviet espionage activities in the United States during and after World War II, there might have been no McCarthy era. If the U.S. intelligence community had needed its own analysis of the Soviet economy in the aftermath of World War II, there might have been no Cold War. These are the conclusions Moynihan makes. Moynihan proves that the American people and government have been the worst sufferers of this secrecy culture. For example: the xenophobic hysteria which led to the 1917 espionage act and the Dulles-Hoover cold war gyrations. Moynihan believes that the US assessments on the Soviet Union went so widely of the mark, in spite of capacity to access the best intelligence since the secret sources could not be tested and substantiated before acceptance as policy inputs. Excessive secrecy also affected the psyche of the American nation in the McCarthy and Vietnam Era. He feels that much of the witch hunting of the innocent could have been avoided had the intelligence available with the security services been revealed to

Politics Essays - New Deal, Social Programs In The United States

Politics Essays - New Deal, Social Programs In The United States Politics Frank Sinatra once said, "You're riding high in April, shot down in May. But I know I'm gonna change that tune, when I'm back on top, back on top in June." Does the epitome of individualism lie in the lyrics of a Las Vegas singer? Is this really how far we must look to find the principles on which this country was created? Unfortunately, this is the case. Social programs implemented by the Federal Government have produced a nation of sniveling crybabies. The concept of rugged individualism has been replaced by the doctrine of victimization. Consequently, we find ourselves entrenched in a constant battle to save our nation from imminent disaster. Social and moral deterioration is attributed to the following: the media chastising traditional views, publicly funded Federal handouts, and the breakdown of family values. The median from which the majority of Americans receive their news has one major flaw; it's not actually the news. NBC, CBS, and ABC report the news from their perspective. Whatever news they deem important is constructed to parallel the public sentiment. This has an enormous impact on the way we form social priorities, morals, and personal principles. If were told what to think, how do we become independent? For example, when an individual openly proclaims that welfare is harmful, that same individual is called a bigot by the press. It is no longer safe to promote conservative ideals for fear of public ridicule. Our nation has been in a downward spiral ever since The New Deal. The Roosevelt Administration attempted to remedy poverty by throwing money at the poor, free for the asking. Although we've demonstrated for the past fifty years that this method does not work, it is still implemented nevertheless. The Federal Government subsidizes the poor by sending them tax-free checks. Instead of encouraging individuals to realize their full potential, the Government labels them as helpless; unable to survive without a bloated Federal Government providing them things. Recent legislation is aimed at helping welfare recipients by aiding their job search. Moving recipients off welfare and into jobs gives them a feeling of self-reliance. This is the key to a happy, successful life. Society's ideals have changed dramatically in recent times. Unfortunately, these changes have a negative impact on the families of America. Single parent households, divorces, and teenage pregnancy is becoming more common. Personal responsibility has long been abandoned. Even common courtesy has been thrown in the background. The absence of a stable family threatens the future of our children. The alarming trends show us that children of broken homes have a greater risk of becoming delinquents than their stable family counterparts. Undoubtedly, our founding fathers would be ashamed of our nation's integrity. America was built on core beliefs. The seemingly most important belief is rugged individualism. The founders emphatically stressed the notion that every individual is sovereign, and dependency on Government is political slavery. America can still be saved. Every citizen should feel personal responsible for the welfare of his or her family. In addition, Americans should teach their children to emulate positive role models, rather than the fringe sections of our society. Many people believe that these are extravagant ideals and that we could not afford to upset the current standards. On the other hand, can we afford not to?