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The Politics of Lying: Government Deception, Secrecy, and Power
Why has the government of the most powerful democracy in the world found it necessary to mislead its own people. The Politics of Lying is the first book to show how government deception, official secrecy, and misuse of power have caused erosion of confidence between the people and their government - perhaps the single most important political development in America in recent years. This book documents the way government deception is now supported by official secrecy, a vast public relations machine, and increasing pressures on the press. It reveals the workings of the secrecy system in unprecedented detail and discloses classifications that even Congress did not know existed
- GenresNonfiction
614 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
102 people want to read
About the author
David Wise
152 books57 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
From Wikipedia:
«David Wise (May 10, 1930 – October 8, 2018) was an American journalist and author who worked for the New York Herald-Tribune in the 1950s and 1960s, and published a series of non-fiction books on espionage and US politics as well as several spy novels. His book The Politics of Lying: Government Deception, Secrecy, and Power (1973) won the George Polk Award (Book category, 1973), and the George Orwell Award (1975).»
Most of his books were non-fiction examinations of espionage and U.S. politics. According to his obituary in the New York Times, “He also wrote three spy novels, which were praised for their insight and authority.” Those novels include:
• Spectrum, 1981
• The Children's Game , 1983
• Samarkand Dimension , 1987
From Wikipedia:
«David Wise (May 10, 1930 – October 8, 2018) was an American journalist and author who worked for the New York Herald-Tribune in the 1950s and 1960s, and published a series of non-fiction books on espionage and US politics as well as several spy novels. His book The Politics of Lying: Government Deception, Secrecy, and Power (1973) won the George Polk Award (Book category, 1973), and the George Orwell Award (1975).»
Most of his books were non-fiction examinations of espionage and U.S. politics. According to his obituary in the New York Times, “He also wrote three spy novels, which were praised for their insight and authority.” Those novels include:
• Spectrum, 1981
• The Children's Game , 1983
• Samarkand Dimension , 1987
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 6, 2025
In 1972, fresh out of law school, I was working as a lawyer for the US Information Agency. USIA provided broadcast services all over the world, on every continent, and it also constructed and maintained highly sophisticated broadcast transmission towers. These towers were built according to detailed and customized engineering and security specifications, among which were requirements dictating bandwidth and decibel levels at which voice and television data were transmitted to its service area.
I had been tasked with determining whether the contractor (American) had violated the US procurement laws by providing equipment that did not meet the requirements in the procurement contract and had violated federal criminal statutes. One night, I worked on this case particularly late in the General Counsel's conference room, studying documents and data marked 'Secret' and 'Top Secret', trying to understand how the architecture and engineering design of the tower provided by the contractor could have defeated the decibel level requirements the US contract called for.
The protocols in place at the time regulating my use of Secret and Top Secret classified information required that the data be stored in a file cabinet with a combination lock; that the classified designation had to be in view at all times I was using (studying the documents); that any personal material I used during the course of my studying the classified information which I determined should be discarded (paper, ink pens, broken paper clips, notes, even out of date data which had to be declassified and ruled on later) be discarded in a "burn bag", secured and left in open view so the night security guard could pick up the material on his rounds and dispose of the material according to procedure; that any combination file drawer be secured (closed and locked) and the combination lock turned a number of times to ensure that the combination could not be opened by unauthorized persons; and that all doors leading into the conference room be shut and locked.
The next morning, to my horror, I came to the office and the Associate General Counsel was sitting in an office chair holding a violation notice containing the statement that I was to be interviewed by an agent of the FBI regarding security violations and misuse of classified information. I failed to perform, unintentionally, a couple elementary proctocols, including leaving the combination file drawer open and a classified file on the conference room table.
The Associate General Counsel stayed in the room while I was interviewed by the agent, whose questions demonstrated very clearly just how serious leaving a file marked classified in open view was and I began to fear that I was suspected of espionage (not even close--I was just scared).
I tell this story because David Wise in his wonderful, comprehensive treatment of government deception, illegal bureaucratic and military operations, prosecution of journalists and their press publishers, and, yes, the overclassification of government document makes a very clear and precise case that withholding and/or lying about most government is little more than attempts to maintain power, often outside the law.
Among other things, Wise discusses a few things I simply did not know, even though I lived through Watergate, at one point working in a government agency for a lawyer who, unknown to me and my colleagues, was later indicted for carry a briefcase full of unauthorized campaign funds across the Pennsylvania Avenue to the Republican National Committee, the implication being that the funds partly were used to pay for the defenses of those accused in the Wategate burglary.
Wise discusse what amounted a 'censorship committee' composed of highly educated people who were called together periodically to determine what newspapers and publishers could not publish and that there was a "Censorship Code" during the Eisenhower years and later to inform broadcasters what the government told them not to broadcast. Certain weather reports were included, for example.
The author also makes the case, very well I think, that so much of the system of classifying government documents restricts information that has no particular national security value and often is done by those who seek to elevate their own importance.
What we can discern from government secrecy and most classifications (there are good reasons to classify certain information the release of which would threaten national security) are that government withholds information, lies, censors, and manipulates information and its release to hide activities that may violate law or people's rights, or protect certain individuals from embarrassment or worse.
This is seminal work and is impressive in its research and reporting. Even though I lived and worked in Washington, DC during the Watergate years and consider myself as informed as anyone alive about what happened in that disgraceful Presidential regime of Richard Nixon, there was information in this book that was completely new to. I came away from reading this book thinking what we are seeing today in Donald Trump is very much what Richard Nixon sought to get away with, including a determined effort to eliminate the independence of the Federal Reserve by trying to make it just another executive agency.
History, and remembering it, gives guidance and we risk loss if we ignore it.
I had been tasked with determining whether the contractor (American) had violated the US procurement laws by providing equipment that did not meet the requirements in the procurement contract and had violated federal criminal statutes. One night, I worked on this case particularly late in the General Counsel's conference room, studying documents and data marked 'Secret' and 'Top Secret', trying to understand how the architecture and engineering design of the tower provided by the contractor could have defeated the decibel level requirements the US contract called for.
The protocols in place at the time regulating my use of Secret and Top Secret classified information required that the data be stored in a file cabinet with a combination lock; that the classified designation had to be in view at all times I was using (studying the documents); that any personal material I used during the course of my studying the classified information which I determined should be discarded (paper, ink pens, broken paper clips, notes, even out of date data which had to be declassified and ruled on later) be discarded in a "burn bag", secured and left in open view so the night security guard could pick up the material on his rounds and dispose of the material according to procedure; that any combination file drawer be secured (closed and locked) and the combination lock turned a number of times to ensure that the combination could not be opened by unauthorized persons; and that all doors leading into the conference room be shut and locked.
The next morning, to my horror, I came to the office and the Associate General Counsel was sitting in an office chair holding a violation notice containing the statement that I was to be interviewed by an agent of the FBI regarding security violations and misuse of classified information. I failed to perform, unintentionally, a couple elementary proctocols, including leaving the combination file drawer open and a classified file on the conference room table.
The Associate General Counsel stayed in the room while I was interviewed by the agent, whose questions demonstrated very clearly just how serious leaving a file marked classified in open view was and I began to fear that I was suspected of espionage (not even close--I was just scared).
I tell this story because David Wise in his wonderful, comprehensive treatment of government deception, illegal bureaucratic and military operations, prosecution of journalists and their press publishers, and, yes, the overclassification of government document makes a very clear and precise case that withholding and/or lying about most government is little more than attempts to maintain power, often outside the law.
Among other things, Wise discusses a few things I simply did not know, even though I lived through Watergate, at one point working in a government agency for a lawyer who, unknown to me and my colleagues, was later indicted for carry a briefcase full of unauthorized campaign funds across the Pennsylvania Avenue to the Republican National Committee, the implication being that the funds partly were used to pay for the defenses of those accused in the Wategate burglary.
Wise discusse what amounted a 'censorship committee' composed of highly educated people who were called together periodically to determine what newspapers and publishers could not publish and that there was a "Censorship Code" during the Eisenhower years and later to inform broadcasters what the government told them not to broadcast. Certain weather reports were included, for example.
The author also makes the case, very well I think, that so much of the system of classifying government documents restricts information that has no particular national security value and often is done by those who seek to elevate their own importance.
What we can discern from government secrecy and most classifications (there are good reasons to classify certain information the release of which would threaten national security) are that government withholds information, lies, censors, and manipulates information and its release to hide activities that may violate law or people's rights, or protect certain individuals from embarrassment or worse.
This is seminal work and is impressive in its research and reporting. Even though I lived and worked in Washington, DC during the Watergate years and consider myself as informed as anyone alive about what happened in that disgraceful Presidential regime of Richard Nixon, there was information in this book that was completely new to. I came away from reading this book thinking what we are seeing today in Donald Trump is very much what Richard Nixon sought to get away with, including a determined effort to eliminate the independence of the Federal Reserve by trying to make it just another executive agency.
History, and remembering it, gives guidance and we risk loss if we ignore it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review