Government Security

There appears to be an inherent tension between the idea of democracy and the idea of government security in the modern period, for the boundaries between what democratic values a government has to give up in order to maintain the security of democracy seem blurred. Indeed, there is evidence of a progressive blurring on one hand and a progressive preoccupation with security on the part of democratic and nondemocratic societies alike on the other. In the 1830s, de Tocqueville's observations on America included the remark that the successful conduct of foreign relations demands scarcely any qualities that democracy is noted for, but almost all that it is deficient in.«FN~«LM8»«RM73»«IP5,0»Alexis de Tocqueville, «MDUL»Tocqueville's America: The Great Quotations«MDNM», ed. Frederick Kershner, Jr. (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1983

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1974) 51-2. » However, the Nixon White House subsequently approved piecemeal domestic-intelligence gathering in the name of national security, including illegal surveillance of American citizens and groups that were deemed unfriendly to the administration. This was the period of the unauthorized disclosure by Daniel Ellsberg of the so-called Pentagon Papers, a "top-secret history of the Vietnam war . . . [that] became a defense of [CIA] Agency analysts who had warned that the [military] build-up wouldn't work and a cover-up of the CIA's counterinsurgents who had helped make the build-up happen.«FN~«LM8»«RM73»«IP5,0»Steve Weissman, "Crying Wolf at Watergate, «MDUL»Big Brother and the Holding Company: The World Behind Watergate«MDNM», ed. Steve Weissman (New York: Ramparts Press, 1974) 35-6. » It was also the period of the so-called "Enemies List," comprising the names of some 200 persons the White House considered it appropriate to spy on.«FN~«LM8»«RM73»«IP5,0»Stu Bishop, "Charles Colson--Superspy," «MDUL»Big Brother and the Holding Company: The World Behind Watergate«MDNM», ed. Steve Weissman (New York: Ramparts Press, 1974) 247. » The views of various commentators writing in the 1980s reflect concern to balance the dem
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Approximate Word count = 6647
Approximate Pages = 27 (250 words per page)

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