Pre-1980s

Google Doc, MLA Formatted

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Samuel Shaw
Over two-hundred years ago aboard an American warship, Commander of the Continental Navy Commodore Esek Hopkins was observed torturing British prisoners of war by ten of his revolutionary soldiers. In response, Hopkins was reported to the Continental Congress and suspended from his post. Infuriated, he immediately retaliated and two of his soldiers, Samuel Shaw and Richard Marven, were jailed. On July 23, 1778 they pleaded their case in front of Congress, arguing they were only doing what they thought was right. Congress decided to let them go and enacted the US’s first whistleblower protection law, stating that it is the duty of any person in service of the United States to report misdemeanors of officers and other service members. Then, Congress went on to ensure Marven and Shaw not only had excellent legal coverage,but paid for their legal fees as well (Kohn).

E.D. Morel
In 1884, in attempt to settle colonial disputes in Africa, European powers gave Belgian King Leopold the Congo Free State as his personal property. Leopold’s rule was brutal, he stole land and forced natives to collect rubber under cruel conditions. This, as well as reports of other obscenities occurring in Congo, caught the attention of Edmund Dene Morel, a shipping clerk and journalist in Liverpool, and he began to research slave conditions. Appalled by what was happening, in 1904 Morel formed the Congo Reform Association (CRA). Following the CRA, this reading argues that the organization was not a ‘human rights movement’, as it is often labelled and to call it so would be an oversimplification. The CRA made changes considered radical for the time, giving Africans the right to own land and trade with Europe, but these changes were still “clearly of the Victorian and Edwardian eras” (Alexander).

Herbert Yardley
A talented cryptologist, Herbert Yardley first began as a young State Department employee trying to decode cables from Europe as entertainment. He was soon able to work his way up as a trusted employee of the US federal government, deciphering German codes in WWI. After the war ended, Yardley convinced the director of military intelligence to hire him and a staff of cryptologists to work for the State Department of NYC. Yarley’s group, however, was later disbanded after illegal surveillance was deemed inappropriate when Herbert Hoover became president in 1928. But as the country veered toward the Great Depression, Yardley was in need of money. He released the book, ‘The American Black Chamber’ in 1931. In this book, Yardley spilled secrets regarding his work for the US government, wanting America to know it was no longer protected by his cryptology unit. The State Department, in response, denied it ever even existed (Richardson).

Smedley Butler
A decorated war hero, Smedley Butler was known for his courage, tactical skills, and tendency to voice his opinion on the US government and military. This made him not only popular among American soldiers and veterans in the 1930s, but also targeted as a potential accomplice to overthrow the US government. In the summer of 1933, bond trader Gerald Macguire first asked Butler to speak on behalf of him as well as a group of other wealthy, pro-fascist men known as the ‘American Liberty League’. When pressed further, Butler learned that Macguire’s true intention was to have Butler lead an army of 500,000 veterans to invade Washington DC. Macguire let on the facade that it was for President Roosevelt’s protection, when in fact he and the ‘League’ wanted to capture Roosevelt and reinstate the gold standard. Despite Macguire’s attempt to bribe him financially, Butler took this plot to Congress. While Congress’s final report agreed with Butler, stating that his accusation was valid, little action was taken in response. In addition, there was not a lot of news coverage on this story. While some may argue this is due to little evidence in Butler’s testimony, it likely has more to do with the hefty bank accounts belonging to the potential plotters (Cramer).

Jan Karski
Jan Karski was a Polish resistance fighter and secret courier, as well as a friend of Herbert Hoover, helping develop the Hoover Institution Library’s collections. His most important work, however, were the secret missions he took for the Polish Underground State. During World War 2, Karski stuck into the Warsaw ghetto to meet up with Jewish leaders. Here, as well as at the Belzec concentration camp, he witnessed the atrocities the Nazi Party was committing against Poland’s Jews. Despite Karski’s concerning accounts, little immediate action was taken. Karski, however, later wrote the book ‘Story of  Secret State’, recounting his experience and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously (Siekierski).

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Alexander, Nathan G. “E.D. Morel (1873-1924), the Congo Reform Association, and the History

of Human Rights.” Britain & the World, vol. 9, no. 2, Sept. 2016, pp. 213–35. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3366/brw.2016.0238.

Cramer, Clayton E. “An American Coup d’etat?” History Today, vol. 45, no. 11, Nov. 1995, p.

42.

Kohn, Stephen M. “The Whistle-Blowers of 1777.” The New York Times, 12 June

2011. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/opinion/13kohn.html.

Richardson, Sarah. "Peerless puzzler gone rogue: eighty years before Edward Snowden rocked

the world Herbert Yardley spilled intimate details of America's secret spy operations." American History, vol. 51, no. 2, June 2016, p. 66+. Gale OneFile: Military and Intelligence, https://link-gale-com.cobalt.champlain.edu/apps/doc/A448135364/PPMI?u=vol_b92c&sid=PPMI&xid=9d0cd21f.

Siekierski, Nicholas. "So many others stood silent." Hoover Digest, no. 1, 2015, p. 168+. Gale

Academic OneFile, https://link-gale-com.cobalt.champlain.edu/apps/doc/A406992698/AONE?u=vol_b92c&sid=AONE&xid=1f7612a4.