The Pros And Cons Of The Espionage Act

American government officials wanted to create a way to protect the country from spies. There was much controversy surrounding the act that they put into action. However, the act was too useful for the controversy to be considered as valid reasons to remove the act. God says that the act of spying and betrayal is wrong and those who still do these things will not be able to escape the punishment that awaits them. The Espionage Act has positively affected the United States because it has allowed the government to protect the national safety of the country.

The Espionage Act

Roughly 350 U.S. citizens and permanent residents joined or aided Soviet intelligence activities in the 1930s and 1940s (PLOTKE, 2000, para. 2). Unfortunately,

One such problem was the problem of espionage within the United States. For example, Germany tried to damage America’s support of these allies by having spies interfere with warehouses, factories, and ships in the United States (“Espionage Act”, 2009). Essentially, Germany was attempting to use the use of spies to disrupt the United States ability to assist Germany's enemies in the fight against Germany. Due to the German spies, there was now security issue because there were spies that were able to infiltrate the United States and cause issues to arise and disrupt the flow of classified information. Another example of espionage within the United States is when Chambers assisted Moscow by carrying messages and documents and giving them to his Soviet superiors (Chambers, 1998). This furthered the realization that there was a threat of leaked information, which caused a need for something to be created to protect the country from more espionage happening. As well as creating a need for a piece of legislature to protect the country's security, it created the necessity to actively search for these spies to take them to court and prosecute them under the

For example, the law restricted what could be sent through the mail (Espionage Act, 2009). This restriction was a main reason that frustrated the mass majority of the people because they were being censored in their own private conversations. Instead of only not being able to publicly express their opinions, now they cannot talk in private. Which further frustrated the people due to their lack of ability to express their opinions with others. For this reason, there was much controversy surrounding the act and the laws that it brought along with it. However, this was not the only smaller law that was under the act that brought a wave of controversy among the public. For instance, the law saw critical perspectives as if they were seditious or treasonable (Cottrel, 2003). This further frustrated the public because they were now not entitled to their own opinions without being called traitors to the country that they live in. Moreover, the public was now being censored of their own ideals which were regarding the war that not only had a direct impact on them, but also impacted the country as a whole on several levels. These levels ranged from very minimal to the level that became a threat to national security. However, not only do the people have an issue with what the government allows people to think, but they now have a larger issue that they need to deal