“ Within the Federal Government there is some official information and material which, because it bears directly on the effectiveness of our national defense and the conduct of our foreign relations, must be subject to some constraints for the security of our Nation and the safety of our people and our allies. To protect against actions hostile to the United States, of both an overt and covert nature, it is essential that such official information and material be given only limited dissemination. ”

“ Both unnecessary classification and over-classification shall be avoided. Classification shall be solely on the basis of national security considerations. In no case shall information be classified in order to conceal inefficiency or administrative error, to prevent embarrassment to a person or Department, to restrain competition or independent initiative, or to prevent for any other reason the release of information which does not require protection in the interest of national security. ”

“ These classification categories are defined as follows:
(A) 'Top Secret'. ‘‘Top Secret’’ refers to that national security information or material which requires the highest degree of protection. The test for assigning ‘‘Top Secret’’ classification shall be whether its unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security. Examples of ‘‘exceptionally grave damage’’ include armed hostilities against the United States or its allies; disruption of foreign relations vitally affecting the national security ”