The Challenge (and joy)

Of Research

This is How Master of DeceitMaster of Deceit Begins

• FACT: In November of 1964, a rogue arm of the United States government set out to blackmail Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. into killing himself.

• FACT: That secret cell was called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the lead plotters were J. Edgar Hoover “boss” of the FBI and assistant director William Sullivan – who hoped to become the next head of the organization.

• THE STORY: • On November 24, an FBI agent boarded an airplane from

Washington to Miami in order to mail a package. The box held audio tapes and an anonymous letter – probably written by Sullivan. “King,” the letter warned, “there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is….You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal, fraudulent self is bared to the nation.” Dr. King believed the letter was telling him to commit suicide.

FBI to Dr. MLK

What Can We See In That Story?

The FBI Tries to Blackmail King

• Those who aim to protect us can also threaten us

• We were a very different country

• Views change

How Can We Understand thattime?

• Explore the alignment that made what is unacceptable now seem normal then

• What do we accept that future generations will abhor?

How Did I Arrive At That Beginning?

How and Why Do Views Change?

Hoover Alive: Popular Culture

1935

1939

1948

1956

1958

Hoover Dies

1987

1988

1991

1994

1994

2001

Left

• 1964

1978

1992

1998

Left Views Questioned

• Susan Rosenfeld, “Doing Injustice to the FBI: The Negative Myths Perpetuated by Historians,” Chronicle of Higher Education 46, no 7, 1999

Venona Revealed, 2009

2003

Summers Debunked, 1991

Race; 1981

1989

New Perspectives

2007

New Summary, 2012

If We Can Understand

• How beliefs became actions in the past

• We can make changes in the present and future

The Story of the 20th Century

• Is the story of changing beliefs

Where Did Hoover’s Power Come From?

The Devil’s Brew

• Fear

• Secrets he knew

• Lies – ability to hide in plain sight

• Control of Media

• Political Cover

• Shared Beliefs

• Suspicion Becomes Conviction

Fear: Round 1, 1919-20

9-16-20

• 38 people killed in Wall Street bomb blast

• June, 1919 bomb exploded at house of the nation’s Attorney General

Threat Was Real, But

• Palmer and his young aide Hoover used opportunity to detain and attempt to deport Russian immigrants with little or no evidence that they were

• Communists

• Believed in revolution

• Had any involvement in terrorism

Patriot Act

• Real Terrorist Attacks on 9-11-2001

• Not one person detained under Muslim registration act has proven to be a threat

Fear Gives Power to Those Who Offer Security

Politics

• Mitchell hoped to ride his anti-immigrant Strong Man image to the White House

• He lost out because Louis Post, a government official, stood up to him and demanded proof that every detained person was actually a threat

This Part of Hoover’s Life

• Obscured or actually misrepresented during his life

Fear: Round 2 1930s

• The Soviets actively spied in America

• Pro Nazi groups held large rallies

August, 1936

• FDR asks Hoover to go after “subversives” but not tell Congress

• Hoover takes that as his mandate for the rest of his life

Not Known In Hoover’s Lifetime

Secrets

• Press feared libel suits so much would not even mention pregnancy, much less divorce, affairs, or certainly homosexuality

Silence Broken by

Winchell Invents the Gossip Column

• Hoover assigns FBI man to listen to each broadcast

• Hoover feeds tips to Winchell

• Winchell makes sure to praise Hoover

• Flow of information controlled

In a Time of Silence

• He who knows most has the most power

• Hoover collects secrets

Lies

• The “do not file” file

• June file

• Executive Summary

Revealed By Theoharis

Fear

Real Threat, But

Whipped Up Threat

Lavender Scare Not Revealed Until 2007, Though Hinted in 1978

Postwar

• Real Spy Threat from Russia

• Stalin murderous brutal dictator

• Right (both Southern Democrats and Republicans) decides to use this as way to attack FDR and New Deal

Real Spy Threat Not Known Until Venona, 1995

Your Secret Past

• Idealists of Depression become suspects of the 50s

• 1960s parents and grandparents

• Teenagers have not experienced a similar shift in beliefs, but may identify with having done something in the past they wish to bury now – Facebook posting

Media

• Hoover uses radio, film, newspapers, magazines to broadcast image of strong, professional, manly FBI

The 50s Lineup

• Politicians find anti-communism popular

• FBI uses media to reinforce same message

• Spy trials, HUAC sessions on radio and TV

How to Spot a Communist

• What Is a Communist?• Belief that colonial governments are wrong• Belief in workers rights• Criticisms of American government• Do these add up to communism?• Maybe• http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=SkYl_AH-qyk

The Hidden Undercurrent

• Communism tied to Homosexuality

• Suspicion of “deviant” sexuality becomes reason for dismissal from government job – on argument that if Communists learned of any such affair they could use it to blackmail the official.

• Not one case of such blackmail

The Hoover Problem

• Most common adult belief is that he cross-dressed and had a lifetime male lover.

• No proof.• But likely that if he had had any sexual

feelings would have been towards men.• Challenge to discuss – but central

question – was he hiding his actions by being so aggressive against homosexuals, or was he hiding from himself?

My Own Photo Research

Shared Beliefs

• Kinsey problem: 37 % of male respondents in 1948 reported at least one homosexual experience

• Was homosexuality prevalent, deviant, a sickness, a threat? In the age of

Strong, Tough Men

Modern Debates

• Gay Marriage

• Link to undercurrent of 50s.

• Problem of difference

Suspicion

• Fear becomes belief

• Belief supported by shared attitudes

• By politics

• By law

• High price for challenging fear

The Crucible

But Communists Also Ruled by Fea and Intimidation

New Actor Enters: TV

Televised Senate Hearings

• RFK goes after Mafia

• Hoover resists

• TV is the eye of the nation

Civil Rights

Local Violence Trumped by National Coverage

Split

• Civil Rights Movement changing attitudes

• FBI invents COINTELPRO

Revealed By Theoharis, Garrow, O’Reilly

FBI Becomes Rogue Agency

But Still Has the Power of Secrets

• Why Hoover thought he could blackmail King

• Same reason JFK could not fire him

• Both men had affairs and Hoover knew it

Secrecy Gives Power

• To the man who knows most

As a Nation

• We preferred not to know about the affairs of powerful leaders

• About the range of human sexuality

• About what our security agencies were doing in our name and to protect us

• And so we got what we wanted – Hoover’s FBI

Hoover Did Protect Us

• The Soviets were powerful and determined enemies

But at a price

Today

Real Threat

Whipped Up Threat

Question?

What about now?

• Torture after 9-11• Wikileaks• NSA• We are in the age of information overload, not

information silence. But that does not mean we are any better informed.

• Watch for alignment – fear, suspicion, belief, reinforced, validated, encouraged, used; questions, doubts treated as cause for mistrust and suspicion

Why Teach About Hoover, MLK’s Secrets, COINTELPRO?

• Because true about the past• And warning about present and future• 192• Learn not in order to blame, but to give us

the power to make better decisions – and that requires us to see Hoover, King, the communists and anti-communists as human beings – as filled with hope, and fear, as ourselves.

Research

• History is BOTH getting details right

• AND

• Comparing interpretations

• Interpretations reflect time, place, concerns of historians, previous views

• Be alert to facts and interpretations of facts

When Stuck

• Ask another question

• Look for another source

When Overwhelmed

• By possible sources, evidence, interpretations

• Ask: What is key question, be specific• Ask: What are larger questions, be

expansive• How much expansion do your details

support?• How much have you extracted from your

facts?

Research Is

• Finding, yes, but mainly it is

• THINKING

• What do I know?

• What do I need to know?

• What questions does my knowledge allow me answer?

• What do I not know enough about to question?

For More

• www.marcaronson.com