Tag Archive

J. Edgar Hoover

The Media Raiders: The FBI, Hoover, and the Catholic Left

While all anti-Vietnam War activities eventually put a spotlight on reactions by law enforcement, in reading Michelle Nickerson’s Spiritual Criminals I was surprised at the extent the Camden 28 action involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO). Historians who work on the 1960s already know about COINTELPRO and how it targeted higher-profile antiwar activists in the New Left. Because I have taught on this decade I knew that COINTELPRO had hunted down The Weathermen and pursued The Weather Underground. Until reading Nickerson’s book, however, I had not absorbed the number and breadth of draft board raids Read more