Bobby Fischer FBI Files Released Under FOIA

An anonymous reader writes: "Philidelphia Inquirer has a stroy detailing the results of a FOIA request for chess great Bobby Fischer." Turns out they thought the anti-semitic chess grandmaster(and his mother) was a soviet spy.

Comments

Re:man o man

[vsync64]

Although it may be difficult to understand given the current political climate, secession was considered a completely reasonable course of action by a large percentage of the US population.

At the time the United States was established as a political entity, it was a confederation of states. The word "state", you may notice, is in technical discussions and most parts of the world a term referring to a country, not a province. The issue of how much power the federal government was to have caused huge political strife and was by no means settled at the time of the Civil War.

Prior to Andrew Jackson and to a larger extent the Civil War, the doctrine of nullification was widely accepted. It allowed a state to refuse to comply with a federal law it felt was unconstitutional, requiring the federal government to either rescind the law or pass a Constitutional amendment (requiring a 2/3 majority) establishing it. If the federal government wished to force the issue, the state had the right to secede from a government it no longer agreed with.

Under Jackson, the federal government established tariffs on southern goods, the proceeds of which were intended to be used to prop up the failing northern economy. This enraged the south, and 1 of the states (North Carolina, perhaps?) nullified the tariff. John C. Calhoun, the Vice President, supported nullification, putting him at odds with Jackson, who learned about this time that Calhoun had supported Jackson's censure for illegally invading parts of Florida and executing 2 British citizens.

Angered by this betrayal and threatened by a state's defiance of the federal government, Jackson reacted harshly and the state was forced to back down from nullification. Jackson's other actions, such as ignoring the Supreme Court ruling on his deportation of Native Americans, further strengthened the power of the executive branch.

The Confederate States of America had a constitutional government with popular democratic support, and was in a situation basically analogous to Taiwan today. Had Lincoln not forced reunification, the 2 countries could easily have gone their separate ways. Whether these countries would have been able to survive without the joint industrial and agricultural economy enjoyed by the United States is another question.

Other actions taken during the Civil War by the federal government, such as the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the revocation of habeas corpus, cemented the perception and power of the federal government and significantly expanded the privileges enjoyed by the executive branch.

It was only until some time after the Civil War that "United States" became a singular term, nullification and secession were viewed as bizarre and unacceptable. The Civil War was a turning point for the United States of America, turning them from a republic into an empire, with Lincoln as its first emperor.