A panel discussion was held on how a democracy balances the public’s right to know against the need for preserving national security. Historians from the State Department and National Security Archive participated in the roundtable, which celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Foreign Relations of the United States series. Questions explored included: how much the public needs to know, what should be kept secret, are secrets political, and how long secrecy lasts. Nathaniel Smith chaired. 


“Open Secrets: The Foreign Relations of the United States Series, Democracy’s ‘Need to Know,’ and National Security,” a session of the 125th annual meeting of the American Historical Association held at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston, was co-sponsored by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.