You do realize that military personnel are subject to different rules than civilians, don't you?
You do realize that, even unintentionally, vital information could be gleaned from that mail if not redacted, don't you?
You do realize that Benedict Arnold was not a citizen of the United States (since we wasn't a country yet), don't you?
You do realize that there is less respect for our rights now than at any time in history, don't you?
You do realize that most people don't have a true appreciation and love of liberty that existed even 50 years ago, don't you?
LOL
We WASN'T a country
Who made me type it like that?
We weren't a country.
Sheesh.
There's "less respect for our rights now than at any time in history."? Really? Is that why, during WW I, American citizens, who had been born here, many of whom were second and third generation American citizens, but who had German/Austrian/Hungarian last names, were set upon, hounded out of business,and/or spied upon?
I just bet that the Americans, of Japanese heritage, during WW II, are just lining up to agree with you on the "rights" thingy...some Germans too. LOL
Fifty years ago, most people were patriotic; but that bit the dust, due to many different reasons, not the least of which was what happened in the mid 1960s. There had been card carrying Commies in education for many years (David Horowitz's parents and their friends, for example ), as well as ardent lefties/fellow travelers for decades, prior to the '60s, but not as many as today. What changed abruptly, in the '60s, was not only unionization, but the fact the many males went into teaching, to avoid the draft. And then there was the fact that being anti-war and anti-American became sort of "chic" and accepted.
But if we take a look at earlier times, say in the late 1920s and during the '30s, "progressive" education was also taking hold. So there was already a cadre of lefties, who by the late '60s, had a strong toehold in academe. That made it easier for the takeover several decades later.
Going back even farther into the past, the groundwork had been laid by John Dewey and his group at Columbia's Teacher's College subdivision.
Once all of this came together, the brainwashing of subsequent generations was easy.
The heads of the original movie studios were VERY patriotic. What you take for granted, as the "American Dream" and how you think of America, was, in actuality, not only fostered by these men, but codified and expanded and then fed back to the populace. Once the studio system began to fail, that too was over.
But all of that is relatively recent history. If we go back still father, what you mean by "RIGHTS" and respect for same, isn't really all that true. Many different groups, from the KNOW NOTHINGS to the KKK to the Wobblies, all wanted to deny others the RIGHTS that they were due. They had NO "respect" for RIGHTS or "liberty" for everyone; just for themselves.
Oh yes, and spying on civilians is also NOTHING new at all, during wartime. Try reading some contemporaneously written newspaper articles and books, from times past...you'll broaden your understanding.