Obviously somebody is hiding something. Perhaps some of the reports have to do with Syngman Rhee’s prewar police-state atrocities, as described by Nichols. “I’ve witnessed many executions,” he writes in his autobiography, “and to the last second they’re fighting for their Communist way of life.” Or, really, who knows what the documents are about? That a known piece of paper is actively being suppressed is a valuable piece of information—often the only thing it is able to tell the world while its suppression is in effect.

Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Sec…, loc. 554