SCHOOL THESIS

1940. Prior to this, information was designated officially secret only under Department of
Army (DA) or Department of Navy (DoN) general orders and regulations. This helped
clarify the authority of civilian personnel in classifying national defense information,
better protect military information under growing foreign hostilities, and better manage
the growing power of the executive branch. 77 Federal civilian employees within the
executive branch and the war departments were directed to designate all information
pertaining to the military, its facilities, or plans as “restricted,” “confidential,” or “secret;”
however, the terms were not clearly defined in the order. 78
In 1942, while scientists at the Atomic Research Laboratory at Los Alamos, New
Mexico worked on creating the atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project, the Office of
War Information issued a government-wide regulation on creating and managing
classified materials. 79 Those who worked on the Manhattan Project were required to read
and sign either the Espionage Act or a special secrecy agreement, which, if violated,
could cause dismissal from employment. Several employees were discovered to have sold
or given trade information to the Soviet Union, as indicated when the Soviet Union tested
its first atomic weapon, almost an exact replica of “Fat Man.” 80
In 1946, President Harry S. Truman issued The Atomic Energy Act of 1946. This
act regulated how the federal government would control and manage nuclear technology
that had been developed in collaboration with Britain and Canada. It also placed such
information in separate categories from other weapons information. The act also
established the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), placing nuclear
weapon development and nuclear power management under civilian authority. The act
introduced the term “restricted data,” meaning:
77 Harold Relyea, Security Classified and Controlled Information: History, Status, and Emerging
Management Issues (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2008), 2.
78 Exec. Order No. 8381, 5 FR 1147 (March 22, 1940),
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=75574
79 Anthony Cave Brown, and Charles B. MacDonald, eds., The Secret History of the Atomic Bomb
(New York: Dial Press, 1977), 201.
80 Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Secrecy: The American Experience (New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 1998), 138–139, 144.
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