Army Surveillance in America, 1775-1980 [Hardcover]

Professor Joan M. Jensen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 1991

Since the Revolution, Americans have debated what action the military should take toward civilians suspected of espionage, treason, or revolutionary activity. This important book-the first to present a comprehensive history of military surveillance in the United States-traces the evolution of America's internal security policy during the past two hundred years. Joan M. Jensen discusses how the federal government has used the army to intervene in domestic crises and how Americans have protested the violation of civil liberties and applied political pressure to limit military intervention in civil disputes. Although movements to expand and to constrain the military have each dominated during different periods in American history, says Jensen, the involvement of the army in internal security has increased steadily. Jensen describes a wide range of events and individuals connected to this process. These include Benedict Arnold's betrayal of West Point; the colonial wars in Cuba, where Lt. Andrew Rowan, the nation's first officer spy, won a medal for carrying a "Message for Garcia"; the development of "War Plans White" in the 1920s to guide the army's response in the event of domestic rebellion; the activities of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI in the 1950s and 1960s; the use of the National Guard in the South at the height of the civil rights movement; and the surveillance of and violence against protesters during the Vietnam War. Scrutinizing the historic workings of the American government at closer range than has ever been done before, Jensen creates a vivid picture of the growing invisible intelligence empire within the United States government and of the men who created it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This eye-opening scholarly study reveals the extraordinary extent of the U.S. Army's role in domestic surveillance from the nation's beginning to recent times. Jensen illustrates how military interventions at home and civilian reactions to them (during the early labor movement, for instance) led to formal internal-security policies like the Plant Protection Program during WW I--the government systematically kept tabs on vast numbers of workers, guarding against espionage and sabotage--and contingency plans for a "war against American civilians" (War Plans White) which were drawn up in the 1920s at the Army War College. The author describes how Army surveillance changed intent from counterespionage to counterdissent during the Vietnam war, as the Army was drawn deeply into infiltration of the antiwar movement. Also traced here are the emotionally charged debates over civil liberties and the limits of government power provoked by the frequent executive use of the Army to maintain internal security. The author is a history professor at New Mexico State University.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In many ways these two penetrating works are complementary. Both authors are academic historians who have written extensively on the perplexing and disturbing question of domestic surveillance by the army and its relationship to cherished American constitutional freedoms. Both are very critical of the army and those who used the army for domestic political purposes. Jensen's book is the first scholarly attempt to analyze in a historical context how the executive branch for over 200 years frequently has used the army to maintain internal security over the civilian population. One major theme that emerges from both studies is the dynamic balance between expansion and constraint of the army. At various times necessity, bureaucratic competitiveness, a willingness to ignore legal restrictions, and ideological persuasion combined to promote expansion. At other times these forces promoted constraint. Domestic social crises fed each tendency in turn. Talbert concentrates on the development of the Negative Branch of Military Intelligence (MI), created by Major General Ralph H. Van Deman in 1917 to observe and harrass the left. After the Red Scare of the early 1920s, MI lost strength, but the social upheavals of the Great Depression and the coming of World War II rekindled it. Both works are illuminating and well written. Talbert's bibliographical essay is especially useful. Jensen's work is more scholarly and focused than Nathan Miller's Spying for America: The Hidden History of the U.S. Intelligence ( LJ 3/15/89), and Talbert's research is more thorough and utilizes much better sources than William R. Corson's The Armies of Ignorance: The Rise of the American Intelligence Empire ( LJ 1/1/78). Both are highly recommended for academic libraries and large public libraries.
-Charles C. Hay III, Eastern Kentucky Univ. Archives, Richmond
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (September 25, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300046685
• ISBN-13: 978-0300046687
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,074,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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