The right of the Executive to withhold from its citizens a large part of the raw information it possesses is only one aspect of a complicated situation, and when public officials place an undue emphasis on such withholding they do so at their ultimate peril. There is also the Executive's obligation of keeping Americans informed of its general purposes in the area of foreign policy, and this responsibility arises from the requirements of practical politics as well as from democratic principles. This responsibility operates on two different levels, although, in practice they can hardly be neatly delineated. The government should present its general view of the world, the alternatives open to it in the field of foreign and military affairs, the arguments for and against these alternatives, and an estimate of the burdens that are likely to be involved. It need not, and probably in many cases should not, go into great detail on these matters, although it should provide considerably more detailed information to Congress than it does when addressing the American people directly.