American Spying Trends After World War II: Transparency to Opacity to Total Secrecy

Before the Second World War, transparent government was a proud tradition in the United States. After the war, the power to decide what could be kept secret proved too tempting to give up. Since then, we have radically departed from that open tradition, allowing intelligence agencies, black sites, and secret laboratories to grow unchecked. Officials insist that only secrecy can keep us safe, but its true costs have gone unacknowledged for too long.

Using the latest techniques in data science, Matthew Connelly analyzes a vast trove of state secrets to unearth not only what the government really does not want us to know, but why. Culling this research and carefully studying a series of pivotal moments in recent history from Pearl Harbor to drone warfare, Connelly sheds light on the drivers of state secrecy—especially incompetence and criminality—and how the relentless accumulation of secrets makes it impossible to protect truly vital information.

Connelly elucidates the power of secrecy, the greed it enables, the negligence it protects, and the losses we sustain as citizens when our leaders cannot be held to account. His crucial examination of the self-defeating nature of secrecy and the dire state of our nation’s archives is a powerful reminder of the importance of preserving the past so that we may secure our future.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

SPEAKERS

Matthew Connelly

Professor of International and Global History, Columbia University; Author, The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets

In Conversation with George Hammond

Author, Conversations With Socrates

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on February 9th, 2023 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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