Total War and the Emergence of Modern Civil Liberties

Wednesday March 14, 2012

     Today in class we discussed Chapter 9.  It was AMAZING because we got to have class outside.  I actually felt more inclined to participate in the discussion just to show that we can hold class outside and not have any problems in participation.  I think others felt the same way, because we had a good discussion.
     Document #1 talks about President Woodrow Wilson and his regulations for alien enemies.  I agree with several of these regulations: 6 (an alien enemy cannot commit any hostile act toward the U.S. or give aid to its enemies, 8 (any person who the President believes can be aiding the enemy or is seen as a public danger can be removed to any location designated by the president, 10 (no enemy can enter into the U.S. unless they follow restrictions), and 12 (if an enemy is caught doing certain things they can be sentenced to jail, prison, military camp, or another type of detention).  I do not really agree with how these regulations are worded.  They talk about any enemy or person, but it mainly refers to men and excludes women altogether.  During this time, WWI, women were very active in gaining support, spreading beliefs, and doing other things that the federal government would see as "enemy acts."
     The Espionage Act was discussed in document 2.  This act prohibits any attempts to interfere with military operations.  Under this act, people are supposed to support the US during wartime (meaning help in any way possible, and especially not interfere with military recruitment).  This act also says that any false statements against the US or the war effort are illegal.  Today, people would be up in arms if an act like this was put in place.  Today, people would argue that this type of act impedes on their 1st Amendment of free speech, press, petition, assembly, and religion.  There have been thousands of people since 2001 speak out against the war and they use the 1st Amendment as their base.  I think that people today would raise several court cases if an Espionage Act of 2012 was created.
     There were several court cases discussed in this chapter, such as Schenck v. United States, Abrams v. United States, and Gitlow v. New York.  All of these court cases have things in common.  First, in each case the 1st Amendment is involved.  Though the rulings are different, the Supreme Court states that the 1st Amendment is not static and it changed over time and they way in which it is interpreted. The federal government claims that state governments cannot put restrictions on the 1st Amendment, only the federal government can.  Also, the "clear and present danger" idea is used in these cases to see what the threatening ideas are/could be.       This chapter also talks about the Red Scare.  This scare happened at near the end of WWI (1919-1920ish).  This was a threat of communism.  Everyone thought that communists were everywhere and were going to take over the world and things would change for the worst.  People had a right to be afraid because there had been several revolutions in Russia and it seemed like Russia was in chaos.  Russia is a big country and if it is possible for it to fall to communism, then the U.S. might not have a chance at survival!  These fears and rumors spread throughout the entire U.S.  Many people believed that if countries in Europe and Asia started to fall to communism, they all would soon fall to it.  This idea was later called the domino effect, but during this time people did not call it that.  Americans have always thought of themselves as protectors of the "free" world and communist threats were destroying our ideas of peace, liberty, and freedom.  I can see how easily people could become afraid and how quickly rumors could spread!  Especially during a time when people of America believed that the government said because they themselves did not have any outside knowledge of other countries.  In my opinion, the federal government helped to spread the ideas of the Red Scare instead of trying to re-assure the country.  Even though the Red Scare came after WWI, laws such as the Espionage Act created a trustworthiness among the US people and people could get their neighbors in big trouble just by spreading a small rumor about them.  Again, the government could have done something to help the people instead of creating more problems.