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Argumentative Essay: Should Government Use Covert Action?

1136 Words5 Pages

Covert action developed as a staple in US statecraft in response to the spread of Soviet influence during the Cold War. This response led to the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1947 to conduct all covert action for the US. The CIA remained the sole government entity allowed to conduct covert action until 2003 when President George W. Bush authorized the military special forces to use this capability. Civil liberty and other non-interventionist proponents have argued that the US cannot and should not use covert action because the secretive nature of this activity runs counter to the American values of openness and transparency in government–citizen relations. Nevertheless, covert action has been and will remain a viable and necessary tool for the US to advance its foreign policy objectives when overt means prove incapable of countering states and terrorist groups that partake in activities similar to covert action. Nevertheless, American democratic values and standards require limits to …show more content…

American democracy demands transparency in actions undertaken in the name of the US, even when hidden. Covert action, therefore, should not be used when overt means would suffice. The employment of covert action should also be defendable because of the high risk of exposure associated with it. If the political risk that comes with exposure is not worth the use of covert action, then covert action should not be employed. Covert action that does not align with American values and which is later exposed can severely damage US foreign policy. The Iran–Contra debacle of the 1980s is probably the most relevant example of this. This incident hurt the US’ image and political power domestically and

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Charles G Cogan wrote explicitly on congressional oversight of covert actions in 1993. A historian, Cogan is an associate of the Belfer Center’s International Security Program at Harvard’s John F Kennedy School of Government. Prior to Harvard, Cogan served as a CIA operative for 37 years, mostly spent overseas, including his term as the CIA Chief in Paris. His practical career with the CIA and his experiences as an academic in International Security give him a degree of authority over activities conducted by the CIA. In his article, Covert Action and Congressional Oversight.

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William Hudson's book American Democracy in Peril, has given several challenges facing democracy in American. Hudson's seventh challenge to America's democracy is the national security state. Starts the chapter off talking about Ronald Reagan's administration and their involvement in Central America. He talks about two important people that were involved in it such as CIA director William Casey who created the contra to prevent the Saninistas from supplying the rebels in El Salvador. Hudson also talks the Oliver North and John Poindexter and the Iran-contra and how they with the support of Casey created a hidden government inside the government that used government resources to achieve their own political agenda (Hudson).

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officials ended up lying to the public” (Zinn 477). While this case alone sufficiently proves that the U.S. government uses any threat that it comes across with and labels them as “massive threats” in order to get a substantial amount of people to agree with the increase of military supplies, another report in Zinn's book shows why even false threats are important and still valuable to the gain in increasing military supplies (Zinn, 477). Even though the Tonkin affair was proved and cased as a wrongful action, that did not stop them from sending troops into Vietnam and declaring war on the Vietnamese having over 200,000 American soldiers sent to South Vietnam and 200,000 the year

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Part two, Covert Action, of Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, by Stephen Kinzer, presents situations in Iran, Chile, South Vietnam, and Guatemala where covert actions were used to abolish governments that the United States claimed had communist influence and intentions. These threats were misguided, but the excuse was used to justify the actions to the public. The true intention of these interventions was to protect American businesses in foreign countries. These interferences are still causing problems for all countries involved.

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Two months later, in June 1917, the United States Congress passed and president Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act, which defined espionage during wartime. In May 1918, the Sedition Act was enacted; thus, greatly expanded the meaning of the Espionage Act. This series of law, known collectively as the Espionage and Sedition Acts, restricted some civil liberties and raised great disputes. “Was Wilson right in passing the Espionage and Sedition Acts?” and “To what extent is it acceptable to limit a citizen’s civil liberties during wartime?”

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It is far more dangerous to attempt to gag the people than to allow them to speak freely. If the Espionage Law stands, then the Constitution of the United States is dead. American institutions are on trial here before a court of American citizens. The future will render the final verdict (Foner, Voices of Freedom, Document

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CIA covert action during the Cold War was justified because it minimized confrontation, kept military costs low, and held enemies at a distance by fear. The first reason covert action during the Cold War was justified is because by using covert methods, confrontation

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The Act does not allow not only spying but also a lot of other activities, including certain kinds of expressions .that a person will be punished with fine or go to prison for not more than ten years if he or she copies, takes, makes, or obtain anything connected with the national defense. The Act will find any one a criminal if he or she is found getting information with respect to the national defense with a reason to believe

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During the Cold War, the United States was caught several times in trying to interfere with the spread of communism through covert means. President John F. Kennedy was looking to rid communism from Cuba, through secret actions leading to the Bay of Pigs incident. President Ronald Regan administration utilized covert operations referred to as the Iran-Contra affair, which the operation helped arm a sworn enemy in Iran, and provide funding for anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua (Clark 2007, 2-5, 11-12).

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One of the most interesting and divisive issues of US politics has always been the use of US military force abroad. With the conclusion of World War II, the United States entered into a period of world dominance matched only for a time by the Soviet Union. The US army became the preeminent fighting force in the world. The isolationist policies of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries relaxed and the US began to insert its army into numerous areas around the globe to establish security and achieve various foreign policy goals. The current debate on the use of military force features two camps, colloquially known as the hawks and the doves.

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Obviously, the most current and most defining example was the NSA spying enacted by the Patriot Act and even more hidden; FBI spying during the Civil Rights Movement. When the Patriot Act was signed by President Bush, this allowed the creation of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). This allowed wiretap requests and "…did not have to give the probable cause for suspicion, the reasoning or evidence that explains why the suspect should be investigated" (Stefoff, 2008, p. 44). Arguably, these requests were split into two categories: terrorism and suspicion of crime.

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The whole point of the Fourth Amendment is not to completely stop the police, because the amendment can be waived if an officer has a warrant, or a person’s consent. The Fourth Amendment states that generally a search or seizure is illegal unless there is a warrant, or special circumstances. Technically stating that a citizen is protected by the Fourth Amendment, until a government employee gets a warrant, and then they can invade a citizen’s privacy. Also people state that the FISA Court’s warrants are constitutional, but the NSA’s surveillance is unconstitutional. Even though people do not like the NSA’s surveillance, the NSA is legal because the FISA Court that the people did not mind makes it legal.

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Some of the actions that the U.S. took was the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, going into nations that were controlled by the Soviets to fight back, and had the wrong motives. The United States actions during the cold war were not justified, because of the motives that they had behind their actions which were selfish and did not think about everyone else, these actions also caused more aggression. The U.S made the decision to drop a bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The U.S dropped the bomb because they wanted the fighting to be over in Japan and they wanted them to surrender without having to have any American soldiers step in and lose American lives.

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The technology in WWII had a major impact on the technology, strategy and outcome of the war. Some of what was utilized in WWII is still effective in modern day military. Even though technology is ever changing the foundations we saw in WWII are still some that we see today from the track system that our tanks run on to basic concept of the artillery that is used. In this paper, I will outline the advancements in technology of rockets, radar and decoding, medical technology, explosives, manufacturing, nutrition and nuclear weaponry of several of the countries involved in WWII. During WWII Nazi-Germany was also making advancements in the equipment and weapons that they had.

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Civil liberties are rights guaranteed to citizens in the Constitution that the government cannot interfere with, however, in the name of national security, they do. The government sometimes finds it necessary for Americans to give up some of their basic rights to keep the nation protected, but many people find this unnecessary. A law-abiding citizen’s extremely personal information should not be essential to finding terroristic threats within this society. Under no circumstances should an American citizen’s civil liberties be violated in a time of war or crisis, because those are assured rights that are most valuable to their freedom during national conflicts.

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