Punishments and Internal Affairs
Due to the increased levels of Soviet espionage, the United States Congress desired to issue the death penalty to both foreign and internal spies to protect classified information. The death penalty seemed like a viable option after the incident with John Walker, a nuclear submarine radioman, who was accused of espionage during peacetime by a military officer.
This Defense Authorization Act also applied to the military in serious cases. The death penalty could be issued to American militants if they were participating in serious espionage involving the following secrets:
- Nuclear weaponry
- Military spacecraft or satellites
- Warning systems
- War plans
- Communications codes
- Major weapons systems
An act to require polygraph tests for 3.5 million DoD workers passed the US House in 1985 by a vote of 333 to 71.
Read more about this topic: American Espionage In The Soviet Union, American and Soviet Espionage
Famous quotes containing the words punishments, internal and/or affairs:
“Not only do I disbelieve in the need for compensation, but I believe that the seeking for rewards and punishments out of this life leads men to a ruinous ignorance of the fact that their inevitable rewards and punishments are here.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Unlike femininity, relaxed masculinity is at bottom empty, a limp nullity. While the female body is full of internal potentiality, the male is internally barren.... Manhood at the most basic level can be validated and expressed only in action.”
—George Gilder (b. 1939)
“Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of the State.”
—Duc De Richelieu (1585–1642)