The National Security State of the United States

A national security state is a country in which military power and defense have a large influence on political and economic issues. This can often lead to a buildup of power in the government and increased secrecy of government affairs. This was a type of system that the US fell into at the beginning of the Cold War. Cultures of secrecy is when a national security state gains too much power and is keeping too much information from the people of the country. A culture of secrecy leads to the people not trusting the government because so much is kept secret. In the US, the Cold War created a culture of secrecy because the government kept so much of their information about their relationship with the Soviet Union confidential. This was justified because the US government knew that there were spies inside the US relaying information to the Soviet Union, so in order to not risk any information getting leaked at all, they kept so much from the public.

I see the national security state extremely prevalent in rural Nevada and Utah in the Cold War build up. In the remote areas of these states there were nuclear weapon testing sites that were key locations in the US defense in the Cold War. These testing sites were kept from the public that sometimes lived very close. In the local areas, residents were not informed of the long-term health effects that living in an area with nuclear radiation can cause because the government wanted to keep the secrecy about the weapons that were being tested. There were many communities downwind from testing sites that suffered radiation exposure without even knowledge that they were being exposed to anything. By continuing testing at these sites even with the harsh effects that it was having on the communities nearby, the US government showed that their secrecy in the Cold War was more than just keeping the Soviet Union from learning about our weapons. The US was keeping the information of the effects of radiation from their own people to prevent the public from speaking up in any sort of way that would keep the US from continuing to advance their weapons.

I personally believe that the national security state still very much exists in the United States today. In fact, I would almost think that it could be more powerful today. It has been seen in previous years how certain sides of the government can control the news and social media feeds. This is a big deal because that is where most Americans get a lot of their information. By doing this they have been able to sway the opinion of the American people in ways that conform to their policies and gain them more support. There have been stories that have come out recently about highly respected people keeping rightfully public information away from the people. I believe that if there was not a government presence censoring our news and social media, America as a country would have vastly different opinions than what we do today.