Editing J. Edgar Hoover (section)

===Investigation of subversion and radicals===
[[File:Lennon FBI Files Before HQ-11p1.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.15|alt=Document with some text blacked out. |Hoover investigated ex-Beatle [[John Lennon]] by putting the singer under surveillance, and Hoover wrote this letter to [[Richard Kleindienst]], the [[US Attorney General]] in 1972. A 25-year battle by historian [[Jon Wiener]] under the [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]] eventually resulted in the release of documents related to John Lennon, such as this one.]]
Hoover was concerned about what he claimed was [[subversion]], and under his leadership the FBI investigated tens of thousands of suspected subversives and radicals. According to critics, Hoover tended to exaggerate the dangers of these alleged [[subversives]] and many times overstepped his bounds in his pursuit of eliminating that perceived threat.<ref name="CoxTheo" /> [[William G. Hundley]], a Justice Department prosecutor, joked that Hoover's investigations had actually helped the American communist movement survive, as Hoover's "informants were nearly the only ones that paid the party dues."<ref>
{{cite news
|title= Lawyer William G. Hundley, 80 [obituary]
|newspaper= [[The Washington Post]]
|author= Adam Bernstein
|date= June 14, 2006
|url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/13/AR2006061301681.html
|access-date= June 21, 2015}}
</ref> Due to the FBI's aggressive targeting, by 1957 the membership of the [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) had dwindled to less than 10,000, of whom some 1,500 were informants for the FBI.<ref>Gentry, Kurt, ''J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets''. W. W. Norton & Company 1991. P. 442. {{ISBN|0-393-02404-0}}.</ref>

====Florida and Long Island U-boat landings====
{{main|Operation Pastorius}}
The FBI investigated rings of German saboteurs and spies starting in the late 1930s and had primary responsibility for counterespionage. The first arrests of German agents were made in 1938 and continued throughout World War II.<ref>
{{cite book|author= [[William Breuer|Breuer, William]]
|title= Hitler's Undercover War
|location= Florida & New York
|publisher= St. Martin's Press
|date= 1989
|isbn= 978-0-312-02620-2
|url= https://archive.org/details/hitlersundercove00breu
}}
</ref> In the [[Ex parte Quirin|Quirin]] affair during World War II, German [[U-boat]]s set two small groups of Nazi agents ashore in Florida and on [[Long Island]] to cause acts of [[sabotage]] within the country. The two teams were apprehended after one of the agents contacted the FBI and told them everything – he was also charged and convicted.<ref>
{{cite journal
|last= Ardman
|first= Harvey
|title= German Saboteurs Invade America in 1942
|journal= World War II Magazine
|date= February 1997
|url= https://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-german-saboteurs-invade-america-in-1942.htm}}
</ref>

====Wiretapping====
During this time period, President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], out of concern over Nazi agents in the United States, gave "qualified permission" to [[wiretap]] persons "suspected ... [of] subversive activities". He went on to add in 1941 that the [[U.S. Attorney General]] had to be informed of its use in each case.<ref>
{{cite book
|author= Schlesinger, Arthur M.
|date= 2002
|title= Robert Kennedy and His Times
|page= 252}}
</ref> Attorney General [[Robert H. Jackson]] left it to Hoover to decide how and when to use wiretaps, as he found the "whole business" distasteful. Jackson's successor at the post of Attorney General, [[Francis Biddle]], did turn down Hoover's requests on occasion.<ref>
{{cite book
|author= Schlesinger, Arthur M.
|date= 2002
|title= Robert Kennedy and His Times
|page= 253}}
</ref> An example of J. Edgar Hoover approving wiretaps is the [[Nixon wiretaps]].

====Concealed espionage discoveries====
In the late 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave Hoover the task to investigate both foreign espionage in the United States and the activities of domestic communists and fascists. When the [[Cold War]] began in the late 1940s, the FBI under Hoover undertook the intensive surveillance of communists and other left-wing activists in the United States.<ref name=":2" /> The FBI also participated in the [[Venona project]], a pre-World War II joint project with the British to eavesdrop on Soviet spies in the UK and the United States. They did not initially realize that espionage was being committed, but the Soviets' multiple use of [[one-time pad]] ciphers (which with single use are unbreakable) created redundancies that allowed some intercepts to be decoded. These established that espionage was being carried out. Hoover kept the intercepts&nbsp;– America's greatest [[counterintelligence]] secret&nbsp;– in a locked safe in his office. He chose not to inform President [[Harry S. Truman]], Attorney General [[J. Howard McGrath]], or Secretaries of State [[Dean Acheson]] and General [[George Marshall]] while they held office. He informed the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) of the Venona Project in 1952.<ref>{{cite book|url={{Google books|w_fiIQ20AIQC|page=PR40|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|last=Secrecy|first=United States Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government|publisher=Government Printing Office|year=1997|isbn=9780160541193|location=Government Printing Office|pages=XL}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://johnedgarhoover.com/j-edgar-files/538/|title=J Edgar Files – Private Files Of J Edgar Hoover {{!}} J Edgar Hoover|last=King|first=Laurel|date=November 6, 2013|website=johnedgarhoover.com|access-date=December 31, 2017}}</ref>

====Plans for expanding the FBI to do global intelligence====
After World War II, Hoover advanced plans to create a "World-Wide Intelligence Service". These plans were shot down by the Truman administration. Truman objected to the plan, emerging bureaucratic competitors opposed the centralization of power inherent in the plans, and there was a considerable aversion to creating an American version of the "Gestapo".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Blain|first=Harry|date=2021|title=No Gestapo: J. Edgar Hoover's world-wide intelligence service and the limits of bureaucratic autonomy in the national security state|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-american-political-development/article/abs/no-gestapo-j-edgar-hoovers-worldwide-intelligence-service-and-the-limits-of-bureaucratic-autonomy-in-the-national-security-state/1F85A76BD7AD0C809AA7ADE9D556CA9D|journal=Studies in American Political Development|volume=35|issue=2|pages=214–222|language=en|doi=10.1017/S0898588X21000031|s2cid=235522738|issn=0898-588X}}</ref>

====Plans for suspending ''habeas corpus''====
In 1946, Attorney General [[Tom C. Clark]] authorized Hoover to compile a list of potentially disloyal Americans who might be detained during a wartime national emergency. In 1950, at the outbreak of the [[Korean War]], Hoover submitted a plan to President Truman to suspend the writ of ''[[habeas corpus]]'' and detain 12,000 Americans suspected of disloyalty. Truman did not act on the plan.<ref>
{{cite news
|first= Tim
|last= Weiner
|title= Hoover Planned Mass Jailing in 1950.
|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/washington/23habeas.html
|newspaper= [[The New York Times]]
|date= December 23, 2007
|access-date= April 15, 2008}}
</ref>

====COINTELPRO and the 1950s====
[[File:FBIHoover.jpg|thumb|Hoover photographed in 1959]]
{{Main|COINTELPRO}}
In 1956, Hoover was becoming increasingly frustrated by [[U.S. Supreme Court]] decisions that limited the Justice Department's ability to prosecute people for their political opinions, most notably communists. Some of his aides reported that he purposely exaggerated the threat of communism to "ensure financial and public support for the FBI."<ref>
{{cite magazine
|url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879566,00.html
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070603001132/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879566,00.html
|url-status= dead
|archive-date= June 3, 2007
|title= From '''Time''''s Archives: The Truth About J. Edgar Hoover
|magazine= Time
|date= December 22, 1975}}
</ref> At this time he formalized a covert "dirty tricks" program under the name COINTELPRO.<ref>{{cite book|author1= Cox, John Stuart|author2= Theoharis, Athan G.|year= 1988|title= The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition|publisher= Temple University Press|page= [https://archive.org/details/bossjedgarhoover00theo/page/312 312]|isbn= 978-0-87722-532-4|url=https://archive.org/details/bossjedgarhoover00theo/page/312}}</ref> COINTELPRO was first used to disrupt the CPUSA, where Hoover ordered observation and pursuit of targets that ranged from suspected citizen spies to larger celebrity figures, such as [[Charlie Chaplin]], whom he saw as spreading [[Communist propaganda]].<ref>
{{cite book
|author1= John Sbardellati
|author2= Tony Shaw
|title= Booting a Tramp: Charlie Chaplin, the FBI, and the Construction of the Subversive Image in Red Scare America
}}
</ref>

COINTELPRO's methods included infiltration, burglaries, setting up illegal wiretaps, planting forged documents, and spreading false rumors about key members of target organizations.<ref>
{{cite book
|last= Kessler
|first= Ronald
|author-link= Ronald Kessler
|title= The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI
|url= https://archive.org/details/bureau00rona
|url-access= registration
|publisher= St. Martin's Paperbacks
|year= 2002
|pages= [https://archive.org/details/bureau00rona/page/107 107], 174, 184, 215
|isbn= 978-0-312-98977-4}}
</ref> Some authors have charged that COINTELPRO methods also included inciting violence and arranging murders.<ref>
{{cite book|last= James
|first= Joy
|title= States of Confinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons
|publisher= Palgrave Macmillan
|year= 2000
|page= [https://archive.org/details/statesofconfinem0000unse/page/335 335]
|isbn= 978-0-312-21777-8
|url= https://archive.org/details/statesofconfinem0000unse/page/335
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|last= Williams
|first= Kristian
|title= Our Enemies In Blue: Police and Power in America
|publisher= Soft Skull Press
|year= 2004
|page= 183
|isbn= 978-1-887128-85-8}}
</ref> This program remained in place until it was exposed to the public in 1971, after the burglary by a group of [[Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI|eight activists]] of many internal documents from an office in [[Media, Pennsylvania]], whereupon COINTELPRO became the cause of some of the harshest criticism of Hoover and the FBI. COINTELPRO's activities were investigated in 1975 by the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, called the "[[Church Committee]]" after its chairman, Senator [[Frank Church]] (D-Idaho); the committee declared COINTELPRO's activities were illegal and contrary to the Constitution.<ref>
{{cite web
|title= Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans
|year= 1976
|url= http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIa.htm
|access-date= October 25, 2006
|url-status=dead
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061019170937/http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIa.htm
|archive-date= October 19, 2006}}
</ref>

Hoover amassed significant power by collecting files containing large amounts of compromising and potentially embarrassing information on many powerful people, especially politicians. According to [[Laurence Silberman]], appointed [[United States Deputy Attorney General|Deputy Attorney General]] in early 1974, FBI Director [[Clarence M. Kelley]] thought such files either did not exist or had been destroyed. After ''[[The Washington Post]]'' broke a story in January 1975, Kelley searched and found them in his outer office. The [[House Judiciary Committee]] then demanded that Silberman testify about them.