The Liberals and J. Edgar Hoover William W. Keller The Liberals and J. Edgar Hoover Rise and Fall of a Domestic Intelligence State Princeton University Press PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY Copyright © 1989 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press Guildford, Surrey All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Keller, William Walton, 1950- The liberals and J. Edgar Hoover: rise and fall of a domestic intelligence state I William Walton Keller II. p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-691-07793-2 (alk. paper) 1. Anti—communist movements—United States—History— 20th century. 2. Liberalism—United States—History—20th century. 3. Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar), 1895-1972. 4. United States—Politics and government—1945- 5. United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation. 6. Internal security—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. E743.5.K35 1989 323.173—dcl9 88-17828 CIP This book has been composed in Sabon Clothbound editions of Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. Paperbacks, although satisfactory for personal collections, are not usually suitable for library rebinding Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey For LONNA Contents Preface/ix Abbreviations/xi A Note on Sources/xiii 1. Domestic Security in a Modern Liberal State 3 The Role of the FBI/7 The State and Its Security: Three Models/11 Autonomy and Insularity/19 Status of the FBI/23 2. The Liberal Theory of Internal Security 28 Politics of Emergency Detention/36 The Liberal Theory/55 Unintended Consequences /65 3. A Politics of Equivocation: The Liberals, the Klan, and Dr. King 72 Dimensions of the White Hate Cointelpro/75 Liberal Theory Revised—1964/85 The FBI and Civil Rights in the South/92 Hoover versus King/103 4. The End of the FBI-Liberal Entente 111 Stage I: Uneasy Alliance/117 Stage II: Increasing Alienation/128 Stage III: "The Threat to Liberty"/132 Denouement/145 5. Rise of a Domestic Intelligence State 154 Investigation, Infiltration, and Disruption/160 Toward an Independent Security State/180 6. Conclusion 190 Selected Bibliography/201 Index/213 να Preface ANY AUTHOR who writes critically about national security is likely to encounter a variety of disparaging comments and occasional ad­ monitions from colleagues, teachers, and professionals within the in­ telligence community. I was warned that my work would be outside the mainstream of political and historical research, and that I would encounter hostility from potential sources. My orienting perspective is that we have only begun to cut through the ideological moorings of the national security state, and that there is much to be accomplished by scholars and journalists who can dis­ passionately evaluate restrictions and diminutions of the rights of per­ sons that are carried out in the name of collective national interests. There is, for example, a great deal of work that needs to be done on the system of classification that so many government agencies have imposed on documentation and distribution of information describing official government business. In a related area, no definite standard or policy defines the legitimate limits of covert intelligence activity, either domestically or in the area of relations with foreign nations. There has always been a need for secrecy in delicate matters of state. But the thoroughgoing institutionalization of official secrecy on a grand scale is an invention of the post-World War II era. Most observers of public policy have accepted it without considering the profound implications that too much official secrecy and national security hold for the future viability of democratic and republican forms of governance. I was extremely fortunate to have friends and teachers who shared my perspective and supported my work from the outset. Ted Lowi pro­ vided constant intellectual resources, adding to the scope and depth of the project at every stage. Martin Shefter was a relentless and good- natured critic. Peter Katzenstein and Sidney Tarrow made many useful suggestions. John Elliff reviewed early drafts of the manuscript. His practical knowledge of domestic security intelligence policy informs this work at many points. Edward Jay Epstein also added important insights. Peter Sharfman and Lou Pauly each offered useful criticisms. The official historian of the FBI, Susan Rosenfeld FaIb, and the staff of the FOIA/PA reading room at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Wash­ ington helped me gain access to important documents. Charles South IX χ Preface and Steven Tilley of the National Archives and Senate historian Dick Baker provided important leads. Page Putnam Miller of the National Coordinating Council of the Historical Sciences was the source of sev­ eral significant contacts. The research for this book would not have been possible without the capable assistance of the reference staff of Olin Library at Cornell Uni­ versity. The staff of the Chicago Historical Society searched the Paul Douglas Papers for me and located the passages I needed. The Herbert H. Lehman Suite and Papers of Butler Library at Columbia University is among the best organized and most accessible collections to be found. The Minnesota State Historical Society and the Hubert Humphrey Family Advisory Committee granted access to the Hubert H. Hum­ phrey Papers, and sent me copies of certain essential letters. I would never have located these letters without the assistance of Mary Cur­ tain, a fellow researcher I met while in St. Paul. Finally, the staff of the Mudd Library at Princeton University helped me to find my way, with pleasure, through the voluminous papers of the American Civil Liber­ ties Union. I am indeed fortunate to have received the support of a very strong and extended family network. Two deserve special recognition: Dr. Frances Richardson Keller, my first and best teacher, and Captain Wil­ liam W. Keller, for his letters. Jordan Hollow, Va. Abbreviations ADA Americans for Democratic Action ACLU American Civil Liberties Union AG attorney general BNHG Black Nationalist-Hate Groups Cointelpro BPP Black Panther party CIRM Communist Influence in Racial Matters Cointelproι counterintelligence program Cominfil Communist infiltration CPUSA Communist Party of the United States of America DID Domestic Intelligence Division of the FBI DOJ Department of Justice CORE Congress of Racial Equality EDA Emergency Detention Act of 1950 FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation HUAC House Committee on Un-American Activities HC Interdepartmental Intelligence Conference IDIU Interdivisional Intelligence Unit of DOJ IS internal security JEH J. Edgar Hoover KKK Ku Klux Klan LBJ Lyndon Baines Johnson MlS British military intelligence unit NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NCDT National Committee for Domestic Tranquility NCLCH National Civil Liberties Clearing House NSC National Security Council PR Puerto Rican PSI paid student informant SA special agent SAC special agent in charge SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Conference SDS Students for a Democratic Society SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SI student informant Xl xii Abbreviations STAG student agitation SWP Socialist Workers party UKA United Klans of America, Inc. Videm Vietnam demonstration WH White House A Note on Sources THE REPORTS of the Senate Committee to Study Governmental Op­ erations with Respect to Intelligence Activities are cited simply as Church, followed by the relevant book or volume and page numbers. In addition, the Hubert H. Humphrey Papers at the Minnesota Histor­ ical Society in St. Paul are cited as HHH; the Herbert H. Lehman Suite and Papers in the Butler Library at Columbia University, as HHL; and the papers of the American Civil Liberties Union in the Mudd Library at Princeton University, as ACLU. Unless otherwise indicated, all FBI documents cited are on file in the FOIA/PA reading room in the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. Many FBI documents are also available on microfilm from Scholarly Resources, Inc. XlIl The Liberals and J. Edgar Hoover It is absolutely essential for every political association to appeal to the naked violence of coercive means in the face of outsiders as well as in the face of internal enemies. —Max Weber CHAPTER ONE Domestic Security in a Modern Liberal State THERE is a tendency to view the application of internal security mea­ sures in a liberal polity as aberrant episodes in an otherwise open and democratic process. From this perspective, the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 constituted an early misunderstanding of the role of public opposition and of orderly rotation of elites in a fledgling republic.1 President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in April 1861 "to maintain public order and suppress open treason" be­ cause Congress was not in session and could not act.2 A misplaced reaction to the Bolshevik revolution by an overzealous attorney gen­ eral explains the Palmer raids of 1919. Mass internment of Japanese- Americans in 1942 was the product of global war and extreme na­ tional emergency. Senator Joseph McCarthy merely caught and rode a wave of public hysteria against the subversive influence of Communists in government. And in the 1960s, the FBI expanded its domestic intel­ ligence programs to investigate and disrupt extreme elements associ­ ated with the civil rights and antiwar movements in a period of ex­ traordinary public disorder. But these events also suggest a broader pattern in which the liberal state attempts to deal with the tensions and limits implicit in liberalism itself. Louis Hartz was near the mark when he suggested that American society contains a "deep and unwritten tyrannical compulsion . to impose Locke everywhere."3 He assumes that state-led repression is not central to this process. But his analysis lacks the hindsight provided by three decades of ideological confrontation of liberalism and com­ munism.