Question

In what ways did World War I and World War II lead to the repression of American civil liberties?

(150 word minimum please!)

Answer 1

An important lesson from American history is that, in times of war, the United States tends to excessively restrict civil liberties. That is understandable in some way, since war creates fear, and fear creates repression. But as a self-governing society aspiring to respect the liberties of all people, even in times of war , the United States must strive to discipline itself and to respect individual freedom. One critical question is whether we can learn our own history lessons.

During World War I the story of civil liberties is, in many ways, even more troubling. When the United States entered war in April 1917, both war and draft were strongly opposed. Some people claimed that the US goal was not to "make the planet safe for democracy," but to protect the wealthy's investments. President Woodrow Wilson had little patience with this kind of dissent. He warned that disloyalty "must be crushed out" of life and that disloyalty "was not a subject on which there was space for discussion." Unloyal men, he explained, "have lost their right to civil liberties."

During the First World War , the government imprisoned over 2,000 protesters for opposing the war or the draft, and in an environment of terror, outrage and clamor, most judges were eager to enforce harsh penalties on anyone considered disloyal, sometimes 10 to 20 years in jail. The result was to suppress all genuine debate about the merits, morality and war progress.

Between 1919 and 1923, every individual convicted of seditious expression during the war was released from prison by the Government. A decade later, President Roosevelt gave all those individuals amnesty, restoring their full political and civil rights. The Supreme Court overruled each of its World War I decisions over the next half-century, holding in effect that each of the individuals who had been imprisoned for his or her dissent in this era had been punished for speech that should have been protected by the First Amendment.

In 1980, a congressional commission concluded that the Japanese internment had been based on crass racial discrimination and political expediency, not on principles of military necessity. Eight years later, President Ronald Reagan signed the 1988 Civil Liberties Restoration Act offering an official presidential apology and reparations to each of the Japanese-American interns who suffered discrimination, loss of liberty, loss of property and personal humiliation as a result of the actions of the U.S. government.

There is no easy prescription to guard against these hazards. In order to strike the right balance in times of war, a country needs judges who will stand fast against the furies of the age; leaders of the press and the academy who will help people see the issues clearly; elected officials with the intelligence to recognize injustice when it happens and the courage to protect democracy when it is imperiled; and most importantly, an educated and compassionate electorate who will not only respect it