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John Kennedy was twenty-two years younger than Hoover. Worse,
Robert Kennedy, the new attorney general and Hoover's new boss, was thirty years younger.
All of the factors that cause older, experienced people to resent younger,
idealistic people were at work in undermining the relationship between Hoover and his new
masters.
After eight years of Eisenhower administration's older and more
experienced hands, the Kennedys trumpeted a young, vibrant energy and a desire to get
things done. New ideas. New approaches. New programs.
Hoover's age (65) and rigid beliefs had isolated him from the "youth
culture" that was emerging in American society. Young people were questioning
traditions and policies. Hair was getting longer and dress progressively more
informal. Students in San Francisco demonstrated against the excesses of Hoover's
favorite government group HUAC. Racial unrest was increasing.
Despite rumors to the contrary, the relationship with the Kennedy brothers
was not really a bad one. Hoover had enjoyed a long friendship with the staunchly
conservative patriarch Joseph Kennedy. John Kennedy, whose legendary love life was
thoroughly documented in Hoover's files, was smart enough not to anger the old man.
Instead, he was very polite, and Hoover, in return, was polite and protective.
When Judith Campbell, alleged mistress of mob bosses Sam Giancana and John
Rosselli, wormed her way into JFK's favor, Hoover took it upon himself to warn Kennedy in
March of 1962 about the dangers of such intimate associations. Kennedy took his
advice, realizing that if Hoover knew about these relationships, the American public could
learn as well.
The relationship between Bobby and Hoover was a tense one, but according
to Courtney Evans, the liaison between the two, there was never a direct confrontation.
Many of Hoover's grumbling was over trivial matters like Bobby's shirtsleeves
approach to office attire, bringing his dog to work (who soiled the carpet), playing darts
in the AG's office (which left marks in the woodwork). Evans believed that the two
men were actually very similar: "When I look at Bob Kennedy in 1961, I figured
that's the way Hoover had operated in 1924...same kind of temperament, impatient with
inefficiency, demanding as to detail, a system of logical reasoning for a position, and
pretty much of a hard taskmaster."
Even before Bobby Kennedy became Hoover's boss, the FBI director had
significantly changed his attitude on organized crime. Ever since Prohibition,
Hoover had maintained that there was no national crime syndicate. Yes, there were
criminal acts by Italian, Irish and Jewish gangsters, but they were on a local level and
needed to be addressed by local law enforcement groups. An incident in 1957 when
sixty-two retired businessmen of Italian descent were arrested at the New York estate of
Joseph Barbara, Sr. embarrassed Hoover into learning a great deal more about organized
crime. At that time, the FBI could not even recognize the names of the mob bosses
that ran the crime fiefdoms across the country.
Then in 1961 with Bobby Kennedy's crusade against organized crime, Hoover
made it a major priority. Kennedy supported this by shepherding new crime laws
through Congress that strengthened the Bureau's jurisdiction in organized crime cases.
The only problem was that Hoover was using surveillance techniques on a large scale
that were illegal and he was afraid Bobby Kennedy would find out about it.
Traditional wiretaps were being supplemented by trespassing to install electronic
bugs. Hoover did not ask permission, but on the other hand, exposed Bobby to the
evidence that had been collected from the illegal surveillance microphones, so that Bobby
could not plead ignorance at a later date.
Bobby's crusade against organized crime resulted in some difficulties.
First of all, through patriarch Joseph Kennedy, a relationship already existed with
Sam Giancana, the powerful mob boss in Chicago who helped deliver the crucial primary
votes to Kennedy in the 1960 election. The relationship with the Kennedy's was
enhanced when Frank Sinatra arranged for JFK to meet Judith Campbell.
Even before JFK's election, Hoover knew from his electronic surveillance
that Giancana had been working with an assassin to bump off Fidel Castro. The Mob
had significant gambling and other vice assets in Cuba that were threatened by Castro's
regime. Hoover later became aware that mobsters Giancana and John Roselli were in
league with the CIA to have Castro assassinated. Wiretaps also revealed that Judith
Campbell was telephoning the White House from Giancana's home.
In December of 1961, Hoover informed Bobby Kennedy that Giancana felt he
was "not getting his money's worth" out of his Kennedy campaign donations.
This had to be a real source of tension between the two Kennedy brothers and their
father. Not only was this mob association threatening the Kennedy image, Hoover of
all people had it thoroughly documented. Less than a week later, Joseph suffered a
massive stroke which robbed him of his power of speech.
JFK got the message loud and clear and disassociated himself with Campbell
and Sinatra. Giancana was furious. Not only was his influence on the Kennedys
dwindling down to nothing, Hoover had FBI agents swarming all over him.
The Kennedy associations with gangsters was not the only source of tension
between Bobby Kennedy and Hoover. Another was the Bureau's attitude towards
Afro-Americans and the civil rights movement. Bobby stayed on Hoover's back about
increasing the number of minority agents. Many have alleged that Hoover was against
Afro-Americans, but that is not true. His housekeeper was black and five employees
of the Bureau who attended to Hoover's personal needs were also black. Hoover just
did not see an expanded role for people of color beyond waiting on white people.
Naturally, this bigotry, like all of Hoover's other beliefs, became part of the entrenched
culture of the Bureau. Passive bigotry -- not hiring or promoting people because of
their race -- was undisputedly wrong for a national law enforcement agency though not
unusual for the times. However, the aggressive, systematic campaign to destroy one of the
most gifted black leaders in the country was inexcusable.
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| King at FBI (UPI) |
Martin Luther King's leadership gifts and his ability to
galvanize multitudes of black and white followers troubled Hoover. King first came
to Hoover's attention in late 1950's when he fraternized with a black Communist named
Benjamin Davis. As King rose in stature as a black leader, the Bureau increased its
surveillance.
In Ovid Demaris's J. Edgar Hoover As They Knew Him, it seems
quite clear that Hoover was out to get King. "From the first days of Kennedy's
Attorney Generalship, Hoover bombarded him with memoranda linking King with 'two hardcore,
controlled Communists,' one of whom believed to have direct links to a Soviet 'apparatus.'
In Hoover's strongly stated opinion, these men were seeking to gain control over
King, and hence over the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and, to a large extent,
the civil rights movement."
In June of 1963, Bobby told Hoover that he was going to warn King about
his dangerous associations. In a White House meeting, King was given a clear
message: "First, it was Burke Marshall, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights
Division, whispering into his ear. Levison [Stanley] and O'Dell [Jack] must go.
Concrete evidence, which neither he nor King could be allowed to see, proved that
the pair were working for the Communist party. And if word got out, John Kennedy's
political future would be threatened. John Kennedy, supporter of civil rights
legislation..." (Gentry)
It didn't seem to work. King was skeptical and eventually JFK
himself had to speak to him about the seriousness of the matter. Finally he
dismissed O'Dell, but refused to take any action on Levison. Levison, himself,
decided to make the break so that the civil rights movement would not be compromised by
his association with King.
On August 28, 1963, King made his powerful "I have a dream"
speech to the crowds assembled in Washington. The wiretaps that night in the Willard
Hotel had revealed a rich extramarital sex life for the Reverend Dr. King . Hoover
the Puritan was appalled that a clergyman would behave that way, but he was jubilant that
the evidence had come into his hands from a bug planted by the D.C. police.
The next day, William Sullivan, head of the Bureau's Domestic Intelligence
Division commented, "Personally, I believe in the light of King's powerful demagogic
speech yesterday he stands head and shoulders over all other Negro leaders put together
when it comes to influencing great masses of Negroes. We must mark him now, if we
have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro in the future of this Nation
from the standpoint of Communism, the Negro and national security."
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