Secrecy in war is essential; without secrecy, no surprise, and
without surprise, no victory. Secrecy in peacetime is often a
nuisance: as Senator Moynihan illustrates in this incisive essay on
the vices that attend inter-departmental secrecy in the overgrown
bureaucracy of the USA. In an introduction nearly 60 pages long,
Richard Gid Powers explains how well the Senator is qualified to
write this study: he has served on the Senate committee on
intelligence, and chaired a joint inquiry by Congress and the armed
services into precisely the problem he discusses. He ends with a
strong plea for a culture of openness. (Kirkus UK)
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, chairman of the bipartisan
Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, here
presents an eloquent and fascinating account of the development of
secrecy as a mode of regulation in American government since World
War I-how it was born, how world events shaped it, how it has
adversely affected momentous political decisions and events, and
how it has eluded efforts to curtail or end it. Senator Moynihan
begins by recounting the astonishing story of the Venona project,
in which Soviet cables sent to the United States during World War
II were decrypted by the U.S. Army-but were never passed on to
President Truman. The divisive Hiss perjury trial and the McCarthy
era of suspicion might have had a far different impact on American
society, says Moynihan, if government agencies had not kept secrets
from one another as a means of shoring up their power. Moynihan
points to many other examples of how government bureaucracies used
secrecy to avoid public scrutiny and got into trouble as a result.
He discusses the Bay of Pigs, Watergate, the Iran-Contra affair,
and, finally, the failure to forecast the collapse of the Soviet
Union, suggesting that many of the tragedies resulting from these
events could have been averted had the issues been clarified in an
open exchange of ideas. America must lead the way to an era of
openness, says Moynihan in this vitally important book. It is time
to dismantle the excesses of government secrecy and share
information with our citizens and with the world. Analysis, far
more than secrecy, is the key to national security.
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