After the end of World War II, the United States entered into a new, definitively undemocratic model of government: the national security state. The national security state is the rise in secretive “national security” bureaucracies that aid the executive branch in pinpointing actual or potential enemies, and designing private, covert plots and campaigns against those who pose a risk to the United States (Dean). Importantly, the national security state is not solely composed of familiar, secretive agents such as the CIA or the military; rather, the national security state also included a “range of civilian institutions” that were showered with federal funding in exchange for the production of new technologies. The national security state necessarily leads to a “culture of secrecy”: the government hides confidential information from the public and even Congressional representatives in the name of national security (Dean). While not a new phenomenon within American history, the Cold War and rise in anti communist efforts led to the entrenchment of secrecy in American politics. This boiled over in the 1970s with the Vietnam catastrophe, the publication of the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and the resignation of President Nixon.
As the United States intensified its efforts against the Soviet Union in the arms race, top military officials, government agencies, and scientists worked to conceal the truth from the public: nuclear weapons testing in rural Nevada and Utah posed a significant health risk not only to animals but also to humans. Sheep-farmers, many of whom had deep familial ties to the land they resided on, quickly noticed the abnormality of sheep dying off in droves. Putting two and two together, the sheep-farmers and other residents in the remote Nevada/Utah area voiced their concern and eventual outrage to the AEC—the Atomic Energy Commission—as signature marks of radioactive decay were found on the sheep corpses. AEC officials, more concerned with the security threats posed by the Soviet Union, flippantly dismissed the sheep-farmer’s claims as disloyal, unpatriotic, and in conflict with current “scientific discoveries” (Fox). The national security state expects unwavering loyalty from its citizens and would go to great lengths to conceal nuclear testing efforts. Any suspicions or concerns raised by the public were swiftly dismissed as unpatriotic, leaving the sheep-farmers in rural Nevada/Utah in extreme debt and their credibility questioned. The national security state also concealed any credible scientific efforts to inform the public about harmful radioactive poisoning, with AEC officials often hiring so-called “scientists” to spin their own positive, albeit very misleading, story to the public.
Without a doubt, the national security state still persists today. While the Cold War era had a definite, clearly identified national security threat (the Soviet Union), present-day America concerns itself with a far more elusive enemy. In a post-9/11 world, America has entered into a “war on terror”; the blatant concern with congressional acts such as the Authorizations for Use of Military Force (2001) is the sweeping authority the President now has to engage in war/conflict with an enemy deemed a “terrorist” or a threat to the United States—without Congressional approval. Terrorism, not the Soviet Union, is a broad description of a potential national security threat rather than a specific enemy. This has resulted in a behemoth of a budget (somewhere near the tune of $1 trillion/year) intended solely for national security efforts—efforts such as “enhanced interrogation techniques” at Guantanamo Bay or covert drone-strikes in foreign countries across the globe.
Will Wright 