Secrecy in America
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 b
y Senator Moynihan rather than by an ordinary person who would make many assumptions in order to write a book about secrecy. His undoing began with the publication of the Pentagon Papers. Moynihan cites the CIA's failure to forecast the end of the Soviet Union as yet another deviation caused by secrecy. 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 the nation and the judiciary to focus on the treachery of Rosenbergs, Alger Hiss, Theodore Alwin, etc, who pretended to be the victims of a rightist conspiracy. 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. Secrecy is heavily weighted toward the past. Moynihan's argument is thoroughly borne out in the case of Lyndon Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon, whose passion for secrecy really was all-consuming. He quotes Hans Bithe, who had taken active part in the Manhattan Project, telling Maryland University students in December 1994 that the Soviets would have been able to fabricate nuclear bombs in five years but because of espionage they did it in four. Daniel Patrick Moynihan draws two conclusions from his study of the way America keeps its secrets. There is circumstantial evidence that Truman was not informed about Venona, but Moynihan has not proved the negative. This book is not primarily an insider's account of the Government in action. " It is hard to quarrel with Moynihan's characterization of cold war secrecy as injuriously "all-consuming.
Common topics in this essay:
Madhav Godbole,
Soviet Union,
Espionage Act,
Senator Moynihan,
Daniel Moynihan,
Cold War,
Act Congressional,
Harry Truman,
Venona Moynihan,
Theodore Alwin,
cold war,
soviet union,
world war ii,
american experience,
book secrecy,
war ii,
espionage act,
moynihan believes,
excessive secrecy,
government secrecy,
world war,
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Acceptance Essays
