The inherent need for governme

The Inherent Need for Government Secrecy

There are many national governments present in the world today that have been elected democratically by the people whom they represent. These governments are directly responsible and accountable to the people, and exist to better the lives of a majority of the people they serve and are chosen by. Being directly responsible to and for the people does not however entail a complete and open honesty with the people of that nation. In many cases it is in the best interest of the nation and its citizens to remain ignorant or purposefully deceived in regards to certain information. This is where intelligence agencies and government security organizations come into play. These organizations specialize in not only acquiring important information, but also in determining what information is suitable for the public at large and in classifying and keeping this information controlled and hidden. It is vital to national security that some information be kept from the public , or even that in certain cases the public be purposefully deceived with certain information.

A nation's defense forces rely heavily on intelligence and secrecy in performing a number of operations in everything from weapons research to the actual waging and fighting of a war. The information utilized by a nation's defense organizations is necessarily kept private and classified in order to maintain a clear advantage over potential enemies. This information may be in the form of weapons research and development, espionage and reconnaissance information, or in government plans of foreign action to name a few. All of these types of information are necessarily withheld from the public eye to retain and advantage over foreign intelligence services and to maintain national security.

An example military research being shielded from public access is the ultra-secret Manhattan Project created and carried out before, during and after World War II. This project was created in the interest of developing nuclear weaponry capable of controlled mass destruction. The experiments carried out in the interest of this project were numerable and extensive, and many were also very controversial. Despite the controversy surrounding these experiments however, their necessity in the proper development of defense mechanisms (such as the atomic bomb) was placed in higher priority than that of the health of the people involved in and harmed by the experiments. Had the results of the nuclear research and testing been released to the public, the controversy surrounding the human aspect of the experiments would likely have led to the termination of the Manhattan Project. It was very important that the public not be made aware of the Manhattan Project because the project was a major step in developing the modern US defense system and maintaining the national security of the US likewise. The reason for the atom bomb's development was the inherent need for a defense mechanism that was more advanced than that of the enemy. At that time it was believed that Hitler was also in the midst of building an atomic bomb , and the only way to defend against nuclear threat is with nuclear weapons of your own. This is an example of a balance of terror. Especially after the actual creation of the atom bomb it was imperative that the public not be allowed access to such extremely valuable and potentially volatile information. If allowed into the wrong hands, it could certainly have meant the destruction of human life as a whole.

An example of intelligence information obtained in part by espionage and used to gain a clear and decisive advantage over the enemy comes from World War II. During the war the German military utilized a complicated and ingenious method of cyptology in the form of a machine called Enigma . Enigma was an electromechanical machine used to encode messages sent between factions ...

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