secrecy

Matthew Connelly Presents Digital Lessons on the History of Government Secrecy

Historian Matthew Connelly offers a series of talks and lesson plans for social studies teachers about the origins and significance of government secrecy, classified information, and freedom of information. 

The Classified Info Uproar Shows Americans' Distrust of Secrecy

by Katlyn Marie Carter

"This suspicion of secrecy is why the way in which we handle classified material matters — especially if American leaders want to maintain trust in our democracy."

Why Do "Secret" Documents Keep Showing Up in the Wrong Places?

by Matthew Connelly

The near-unilateral authority of presidents to declare material secret in the name of national security is intoxicating and it's nearly impossible for the chief executive to resist abusing it, creating not a "deep state" but a "dark state" of secrecy and impunity. 

As Biden Faces Documents Controversy, is it Time to Ask Why So Much is Classified?

Former Pentagon Special Counsel Oona Hathaway says that an excess of classification makes government accountability difficult to achieve, as well as contributing to potential criminality. 

"Archives Rat" John Prados Punctured Military Secrecy to Write History

"Running through all his work was the contention that records of intelligence and covert activities represented a sort of historical dark matter: a vast amount of material that, while invisible in conventional narratives, could, if revealed, radically shift our understanding of the past."

A Decision to Declare an Already-Public History Secret is Bad for the Public

The State Department's official history of US-Soviet relations includes a military intelligence officer's recollection of a 1983 exercise that nearly triggered nuclear war. Why has the government pulled that official history and restricted the original memo? 

Executive Privilege was out of Control Before Steve Bannon Claimed It

by Timothy Noah

Perhaps Steve Bannon is doing a favor for the cause of government accountability by showing the outlandishness of the entire doctrine, which has managed to pass from Dwight Eisenhower's strategy for stonewalling Joseph McCarthy to a hallowed totem of the out-of-control presidency.

Will Trump Burn the Evidence?

by Jill Lepore

Reckoning with the Trump adminstration's actions and assigning moral or criminal sanction to any misdeeds will probably be compromised by the destruction or failure to maintain presidential records.