2237 Yes, we've been here before

A reader at Victor Davis Hanson's site asks if there has ever been such a pathology as today where the intelligence services leak information to the opposition via the media, and he replies:

"I think at times in the Civil War the Copperheads in 1864 engaged in activity and disclosed information that was designed to harm the Union cause and force a stalemate that might bring them into power. In addition, there were a number of Confederate sympathizers in the government and military that were hardly careful in handling classified material. And their opposition to Lincoln also was grounded in a hatred of abolitionists and equity between the races. At times in WWII the Press hounded Patton to such an extent after Sicily that America lost its most gifted commander just when we needed him most in Italy in early 1944. And of course you remember Vietnam, when there was not merely leaks from intelligence agencies, but prominent Americans who ventured to Hanoi, lied about the terrible conditions faced by American P.O.W.s, gave propaganda lectures for the enemy, and did all they could to lose the war. My first memory as an incoming freshman at UC Santa Cruz in 1971 was walking into the dorm and seeing two Viet-Cong flags with Uncle Ho posters at the end of the hallway. So, yes, we've been here before."