What would George Washington think about WikiLeaks?

[struggle4progress]

December 16, 2010
PETER SHAWN TAYLOR

... the Pentagon Papers revealed systematic efforts by American politicians to misrepresent the truth about the war in Vietnam. This, it could be argued, laid the foundation for Watergate a few years later. More importantly, it changed the public conversation on Vietnam in a significant way by uncovering an established government lie. This certainly meets our test for a higher purpose ...

The real purpose of WikiLeaks is not revelatory, but anarchistic. Exposing the behind-the-scene machinations of diplomacy will inevitably make international relations more difficult. If every secret cable and private whisper is fair game for theft and publication, how will it ever be possible for governments to confide in each other? Sometimes compromises are necessary when there’s a longer game in play. But this is impossible if diplomatic relations are made entirely transparent. WikiLeaks offers plenty of prurient interest, but no higher purpose ...

In 1794, political adversaries demanded that Washington release the behind-the-scenes details of the Jay Treaty, which finally concluded the American Revolution and established the boundary and trading relationship between the U.S. and Canada. The goal was to embarrass the president by revealing unpleasant compromises with Britain.

Washington’s response: “The nature of foreign negotiations requires caution, and their success must often depend on secrecy; and even when brought to a conclusion a full disclosure of all the measures, demands, or eventual concessions … might have a pernicious influence on future negotiations or produce immediate inconveniences <or> perhaps danger.” ...

http://news.guelphmercury.com/Opinions/EditorialOpinion/article/735499

[jaxx]

1. Very good article.

Washington understood that some things are best kept from the public eye, particularly when the goal is cordial long-term relations with other countries. He would have been appalled by WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Not every secret must be told.
(from the article)

[yurbud]

2. or government has lost the confidence of the people when it comes to foreign policy and economics

The results that we see in the open lead us to believe what's going on behind the scenes is even worse.

[bemildred]

3. He probably would not think much of letting 2.5 million people browse

through 250K random diplomatic cables either.

The thing that annoys me most about this is the focus on Assange and Wikileaks instead of the feeble piss-poor, EXPENSIVE, bloviating security system we have.

[Demeter]

4. Washington's World Was Very Different From Ours

I am sure if he were alive today, he would recognize the necessity of Wikileaks.

The Founding Fathers were above all rational pragmatists and Children of the Enlightenment. They would have marched on Washington and burned it down long ago, somewhere around Iran/Contra...

[bhikkhu]

5. He would have considered the content despicable

and placed a high value on changing the nature of the beast that it represented.