Without freedom to access information, Americans accepted “the implicit infallibility of presidents.” So said Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman to President Richard Nixon on the day after the Top Secret Pentagon Papers –which revealed that four US presidents had misled the American public about the Vietnam War– were partially published by the New York Times.
In time for Sunshine Week, the 2010 Oscar-nominated documentary “The Most Dangerous Man in America” (which relied upon National Security Archive documents) has re-raised the issues of government secrecy, national security, and which types of information the American public has the right to know. This Audio Hot Doc eavesdrops on Nixon and Haldeman as they professed that the American public should not know what their government was doing in Vietnam.
Nixon Oval Office meeting with H.R. Haldeman. Monday 14 June 1971, 3:09 PM. Click above to play.
Transcription Here.
