ABSTRACT
The United States offers a significant insight into the history of crimes against the state. One study of free speech in the US concludes that the country has attempted to punish individuals for criticising government officials or policies only during six war-related episodes: the conflict with France at the end of the eighteenth century, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Cold War and the Vietnam War. In each of those periods, ‘the United States went too far in sacrificing civil liberties – particularly the freedom of speech’ (Stone 2004: 12-13).
