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Contents PageReturn to Home PageTHE VIETNAM WAR ERA
President Kennedy's assassination introduced the violent aspect of the era
known as the "Sixties." This period, which actually lasted into the
mid-1970s, was characterized by idealism, but also by increased urban crime
and a propensity for some groups to resort to violence in challenging the
"establishment."
Most Americans objecting to involvement in Vietnam or to other policies
wrote to Congress or carried peace signs in orderly demonstrations.
Nevertheless, in 1970 alone, an estimated 3,000 bombings and 50,000 bomb
threats occurred in the United States.
Opposition to the war in Vietnam brought together numerous
anti-establishment groups and gave them a common goal. The convergence of
crime, violence, civil rights issues, and potential national security issues
ensured that the FBI played a significant role during this troubled period.
Presidents Johnson and Nixon and Director Hoover shared with many Americans
a perception of the potential dangers to this country from some who opposed
its policies in Vietnam. As Hoover observed in a 1966 PTA Magazine article,
the United States was confronted with "a new style in conspiracy--conspiracy
that is extremely subtle and devious and hence difficult to understand...a
conspiracy reflected by questionable moods and attitudes, by unrestrained
individualism, by nonconformism in dress and speech, even by obscene
language, rather than by formal membership in specific organizations."
The New Left movement's "romance with violence" involved, among others, four
young men living in Madison, Wisconsin. Antiwar sentiment was widespread at
the University of Wisconsin (UW), where two of them were students. During
the very early morning of August 24, 1970, the four used a powerful homemade
bomb to blow up Sterling Hall, which housed the Army Math Research Center at
UW. A graduate student was killed and three others were injured.
That crime occurred a few months after National Guardsmen killed four
students and wounded several others during an antiwar demonstration at Kent
State University. The FBI investigated both incidents. Together, these
events helped end the "romance with violence" for all but a handful of
hardcore New Left revolutionaries. Draft dodging and property damage had
been tolerable to many antiwar sympathizers. Deaths were not.
By 1971, with few exceptions, the most extreme members of the antiwar
movement concentrated on more peaceable, yet still radical tactics, such as
the clandestine publication of The Pentagon Papers. However, the violent
Weathermen and its successor groups continued to challenge the FBI into the
1980s.
No specific guidelines for FBI Agents covering national security
investigations had been developed by the Administration or Congress; these,
in fact, were not issued until 1976. Therefore, the FBI addressed the
threats from the militant "New Left" as it had those from Communists in the
1950s and the KKK in the 1960s. It used both traditional investigative
techniques and counterintelligence programs ("Cointelpro") to counteract
domestic terrorism and conduct investigations of individuals and
organizations who threatened terroristic violence. Wiretapping and other
intrusive techniques were discouraged by Hoover in the mid-1960s and
eventually were forbidden completely unless they conformed to the Omnibus
Crime Control Act. Hoover formally terminated all "Cointelpro" operations on
April 28, 1971.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover died on May 2, 1972, just shy of 48 years as
the FBI Director. He was 77. The next day his body lay in state in the
Rotunda of the Capitol, an honor accorded only 21 other Americans.
Hoover's successor would have to contend with the complex turmoil of that
troubled time. In 1972, unlike 1924 when Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone
selected Hoover, the President appointed the FBI Director with confirmation
by the Senate. President Nixon appointed L. Patrick Gray as Acting Director
the day after Hoover's death. After retiring from a distinguished Naval
career, Gray had continued in public service as the Department of Justice's
Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. As Acting Director, Gray
appointed the first women as Special Agents since the 1920s.
Shortly after Gray became Acting Director, five men were arrested
photographing documents at the Democratic National Headquarters in the
Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C. The break-in had been
authorized by Republican Party officials. Within hours, the White House
began its effort to cover up its role, and the new Acting FBI Director was
inadvertently drawn into it. FBI Agents undertook a thorough investigation
of the break-in and related events. However, when Gray's questionable
personal role was revealed, he withdrew his name from the Senate's
consideration to be Director. He was replaced hours after he resigned on
April 27, 1973, by William Ruckleshaus, a former Congressman and the first
head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who remained until Clarence
Kelley's appointment as Director on July 9, 1973. Kelley, who was Kansas
City Police Chief when he received the appointment, had been an FBI Agent
from 1940 to 1961.