國家機密과 機密論爭 : 美國 Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson行政府時代를 中心으로 = The Government Secrey and Its Controversy

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Secrecy has become a major characteristics of most modern public and private organizations, partly as a result of bureaucratization and democratization and subsequent organizational dependence upon manipulation and persuasion. Though security and secrecy systems are seen as indispensable to the efficient functioning of modern organization, they contain the seeds of their own destruction. According to Max Weber, the concept of the 'official secret' is the specific invention of bureaucracy, and an inherent characteristic of administrative institution. This preoccupation is based in good part upon functional necessity.
Government agencies, as well as organization in the sphere of private bureaucracy, find it expedient to keep certain phases of their operations secret in the interest of maintaining a competitive advantage over rival administractive units.
American administration fails in many respects to conform to the stereotype of bureaucracy as Weber's analysis. For one thing, the bureaucratic role has traditionally been less professionalized in American society than has been the case in Europe. Recent years, however which have been productive of so many changes in the scope and character of American government, have seen the emergence of a substantial number of pressures directed at increasing the extent of secrecy prevailing in the conduct of American administration.
The most visible if not the most important of these factors has been the full scale involvement of the United States in world politics and, more recently, in the cold war with the Soviet Union and its satellites. The expanded commitments of the United States in diplomatic and military affaris would alone have brought about a very considerable increase in pressure towards administrative secrecy, but to this development there has been added the fact that advances in modern science and technology have enormously widened the range of subjects that need to be kept safe from disclosure in the interest of maintaining a military or diplomatic advantage.
The secrecy dispute during President Eisonhower's regime turned mainly around differences of opinion related to government information restriction, and to the motivation and justification for government secrecy.
There are differing views concerning the news manager's medium of the background conference as it was used in the Eisenhower Administration, as well as Eisenhower's seemingly favored position with the critics of government secrecy and government news managers during his administration. There is several distinctive feature of the government secrecy controversy under Kennedy. It was seen that the President, himself, requested assistance in censoring the news by calling for voluntary censorship by the press. The credibility dilemma was heightened by influential government officials like Arthur Sylvester, who from 1961 to 1967 was in charge of dispensing information for the Department of Defence.
Sylvester contended that "information is a weapon to be used or withheld." He denied any intent to fabricate or distort the news ; but he defended the government's "inherent right... to lie save itself when faced with nuclear disaster."
The Freedom of Information Committee of the professional journatistic fraternity reported that there was probably more secrecy among federal agencies than there had been eight years previously.
One of the interesting features of the government secrecy controversy that developed under President Johnson was that in respect to government information access, Johnson, himself, became a highly personal target of the critics. Another significant aspect of the government secrecy controversy in the Johnson Administration was the dispute sorrounding the government's handling of information related to Vietnam. This phase of controversy was broader dispute, involoing various member of the Pentagon rather than just the President himself.
In response to the newsmen's protest over various restrictions in Vietnam, the Pentagon said these curbs were necenssary because the Saigon Press Corps had seriously breached security.
We have witnessed the continuing controversy over government secrecy in a free society. What to do aboute this conflict constitutes an exceedingly intricate and difficult problem. And like all complex problems there is no simple solution, ready and waiting at one's disposal.
As a result, the governments veracity has come under question. Accelerating instances of government secrecy, outright lying, and new management have contributed to wide public skepticism. Terms such as "credibility gap," "crisis in confidence," and "truth in government" have become commonplace. Indeed, the crisis in credibility today is considered to be one of the nation's major governmental problems.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. 機密에 대하여
• 2. 美國官僚制와 機密
• 3. 美國에 있어서 國家機密論爭
• 1) Eisenhower 行政府에 있어서 機密論爭
• 2) Kennedy 行政府에 있어서 機密論爭
• 3) Johnson 行政府에 있어서 機密論爭
• 4. 結 語