Loose lips sink ships was an old saying that evolved out of world war two and it specifically meant that people who talked too much could damage the war effort and aid the enemy. This was a very real concern during the time because the grape vine was rife with rumors of Nazi spies creeping all over the place. The person you were Dating on the singles scene could be a spy. Anyone could be a spy and so it was very important that you not speak of things that could provide them with information.
Security was a great concern and it extended to the general population. When people were Dating it was easy after a few drinks to start talking about things they probably shouldn’t and they were especially susceptible if the person was offering the possibility of sex as well. One simply couldn’t be too careful. This never actually lead to panic responses in the American public at the time but it did lead to a very cautious mind set among people. It is very easy for people now to look back and unintentionally use the knowledge they possess now to color the way they feel about events that happened then but the truth is that at the time no one knew how things would turn out. People didn’t know what was going on. For instance there was the belief that Germany might try to bomb New York or Washington with long range bombers. It turned out that these were simply rumors and Germany never possessed bombers with that kind of capability.
People might then have been free with their speech about possible anti aircraft capabilities and so a German spy might be able to use this to discover valuable information. Here was a perfect example of people having to be careful about what they talked about and what they knew.
