User:Freeagentjd/sandbox/Limited Hangout

[Attempted to work on the current Limited hangout page, but could not figure out some of the formatting issues. (Perhaps due to the age of the page and its neglect for some time, as well as my general newness to editing Wikipedia articles.) This is intended to merge with the current page or perhaps replace it.]

A limited hangout or partial hangout is a communications strategy used in several industries and by government institutions. The need for utilizing the limited hangout arises when two things are true: (1) one party possesses information the release of which would be damaging to that party and (2) another party seeks the release of the putatively damaging information. The limited hangout is premised on the idea that, by releasing a limited subset of the putatively damaging information, the party seeking release will be satisfied and not pursue the matter further, thus staving off what would have been a larger controversy if all of the putatively damaging information had been released.

Concept
According to former special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Victor Marchetti, a limited hangout is "spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting—sometimes even volunteering—some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further."

The Manhattan Project
United States Army officials involved in the Manhattan Project anticipated a large degree of public scrutiny when the existence of nuclear weapons was publicly revealed. These officials, however, did not want to release anything they considered to be sensitive or classified information related to the program. According to the United States Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information, "[t]o both allay inordinate inquisitiveness and satisfy the legitimate public need to know, officials in early 1944 began a carefully designed public relations program in anticipation of when they would have to announce the news to the world." These officials "perceived that, from the standpoint of security, the release of some selected information would make it easier to maintain the secrecy of the highly classified aspects of the project." Spearheaded by United States Army General Leslie Groves, "[t]he public relations program had two parts: preparation of a series of public releases and preparation of an administrative and scientific history of the project."

Richard Nixon and Watergate
In a March 22, 1973, meeting between United States President Richard Nixon, John Dean, John Ehrlichman, John N. Mitchell, and H. R. Haldeman, Ehrlichman incorporated the term into a new and related one, "modified limited hangout."

The phrase was coined in the following exchange: PRESIDENT: You think, you think we want to, want to go this route now? And the – let it hang out, so to speak?

DEAN: Well, it's, it isn't really that –

HALDEMAN: It's a limited hang out.

DEAN: It's a limited hang out.

EHRLICHMAN: It's a modified limited hang out.

PRESIDENT: Well, it's only the questions of the thing hanging out publicly or privately. Before this exchange, the discussion captures Nixon outlining to Dean the content of a report that Dean would create, laying out a misleading view of the role of the White House staff in events surrounding the Watergate burglary. In Ehrlichman's words: "And the report says, 'Nobody was involved.'" The document would then be shared with the United States Senate Watergate Committee investigating the affair. The report would serve the administration's goals by protecting the President, providing documentary support for his false statements should information come to light that contradicted his stated position. Further, the group discusses having information on the report leaked by those on the Committee sympathetic to the President, to put exculpatory information into the public sphere.

The phrase has been cited as a summation of the strategy of mixing partial admissions with misinformation and resistance to further investigation, and is used in political commentary to accuse people or groups of following a Nixon-like strategy.

Sexual Abuse by Priests
Writing in The Washington Post, Mary McGrory described a statement by Pope John Paul II regarding sexual abuse by priests as a "modified, limited hangout."