National Security Lies

This thought-provoking book details the national security lies told by presidents of the United States throughout history, both to Congress and to the public. Tung Yin explains how current laws do not set up sufficient prevention measures and proposes legislative reform to regulate such lies.

Utilizing a strong moral and legal foundation, Yin analyzes the difference between political, personal, and national security lies, and underlines the importance of checks and balances. In this book, he presents a legislative proposal which would allow for a contemporaneous record of every national security lie, free from post-hoc rationalization. Yin argues that keeping an operation covert is defensible, but that covering up government misconduct is not fit for a functioning democracy. Highlighting dozens of national security lies from Roosevelt through to the Biden administration, chapters provide a useful categorization of the lies by context and purpose, ultimately stimulating discussion about the appropriateness of national security lies in the USA’s constitutional structure.



National Security Lies is a useful resource for students and researchers in law and politics as well as terrorism and security law. It is also an invigorating read for political scientists focused on constitutional separation of powers, as well as historians and journalists focused on national security.