In 1964, Roger Hilsman, who had served as assistant secretary of state for the Far East until 1963, brought out a self-serving book criticising America's Vietnam policy. Dean Rusk, then secretary of state, understandably furious, asked a young State Depart- ment lawyer if Hilsman could be jailed. After brief research, Rusk was told that the law protected only very specific types of information such as nuclear or cryptological material. America had the first amendment to the constitution prohibiting laws impairing free speech, not an Official Secrets Act like Britain's. The attorney later sought confirmation from a Harvard Law School professor who confided that President Kennedy had asked him that same question more than once and had always received precisely that answer. Neither attorney considered the possibility of a civil action seeking monetary damages by the government, a prospect that seemed absurd.
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