Existing comment:
Be Careful What You Say:
This letter from Conference Secretary of War L.P. Walker in 1861 warns Gen. Pierre Beauregard against revealing too much information to newspaper reporters.
Sir,
The news papers are filled with letters from your Head Quarters by correspondents. Many of these letter contain statements which it is highly improper to have made public, because they necessarily reach the enemy in course of time.
Nothing should be published disclosing the number of your troops or your contemplated movements or the reason influencing the same. It is impossible to specify in a letter, all that should be excluded from news paper communications but the general rule should be to exclude everything showing either our weakness or strength, so long as a disclosure could possibly damage us either by causing the enemy to retreat when we would prefer his advancing, or to invite attack before we were ready for it. I feel satisfied that correspondents of news papers will appreciate the propriety of this rule, and will cheerfully conform to it. |