CLEP US History II

Answer: D - When the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, it also began to pass multiple legislative acts regarding espionage, a comparatively obscure crime. Though anti-spying legislation already existed (the Defense Secrets Act of 1911), the Espionage Act of 1917 and Trading with the Enemy Act expanded the legal definitions of those crimes considerably, paving the way for peacetime charges of espionage and treason. More importantly, it became the foundation for a national debate regarding the public dissemination of government information to the American people. The debate continues to rage nearly a century later, as the general citizenry and their empowered leaders perpetually engage in discourse regarding what the people have a right to know and when they should be informed. Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times, was charged with crimes under the Espionage Act of 1917, and the issue was also debated during The Washington Post’s coverage of the Watergate scandal.