J. Edgar Hoover: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Hoover-JEdgar-LOC.jpg|thumb|Hoover in 1961]] |
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'''John Edgar Hoover''' ([[January 1]], [[1895]] – [[May 2]], [[1972]]) was the Director of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) from [[May 10]], [[1924]], until his death in [[1972]]. Hoover was appointed acting director of the FBI by President [[Calvin Coolidge|Coolidge]] to reform and clean up the bureau, which was considered a haven of corruption. During his tenure, Hoover attained extraordinary power and unusual discretionary authority, while also feuding with many adversaries. Some of his contemporary detractors and now some historians suspect or accused him of having links to the [[Mafia]], of gathering information for the purposes of [[blackmail]] and of being a [[the closet|closet]] [[homosexual]] while persecuting others with similar preferences. |
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==FBI legacy== |
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To date, Hoover is the longest-serving leader of an executive branch agency in the [[United States]], having served under a record eight presidents, from Coolidge to [[Richard Nixon]]; indeed, it is because of Hoover that, since his tenure, FBI Directors have been limited to ten-year terms. |
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Hoover is credited with creating an effective law enforcement organization, but has frequently been accused of exceeding and abusing his authority in blackmailing notable public figures and engaging in unwarranted political persecution. Hoover's [[COINTELPRO]] program allowed FBI agents to disrupt organizations such as the [[Black Panther Party]], the [[Ku Klux Klan]], and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]'s [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference|SCLC]], using methods including infiltration, legal harassment, and violence. Hoover habitually fired FBI agents, either randomly or by singling out those who "looked like truck drivers" or had "pointy heads." He was also notorious for assigning agents who had displeased him to career-ending jobs in cities with little need for an FBI presence. |
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Nevertheless, in [[1966]], he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from President [[Lyndon Johnson]] for his role as Director of the FBI. |
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==Early life and education== |
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Hoover was born in [[Washington, DC]], but details of his early life are murky; a [[birth certificate]] for him was not filed until [[1938]]. What little is known about his upbringing generally can be traced back to a single [[1937]] profile by journalist Jack Alexander. Hoover was educated at [[George Washington University]], graduating in [[1917]] with a law degree. During his time there, he became a member of [[Kappa Alpha Order]] (Alpha Nu [[1914]]). |
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He was awarded an honorary [[Doctor of Science|Sc. D]] by [[Kalamazoo College]] in 1937. |
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==Department of Justice and FBI career== |
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Rather than enlisting for military service during [[World War I]], he found work with the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]]. He soon proved himself capable and was promoted to head the Enemy Aliens Registration Section. In [[1919]], he became head of the new General Intelligence Division of the Justice Department (see the [[Palmer Raids]]). From there, in [[1921]], he joined the Bureau of Investigation as deputy head, and in [[1924]] the Attorney General made him the acting director. He became the permanent director of the Bureau in [[1925]]. |
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When Hoover took over the Bureau of Investigation, it had approximately 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents. In great part due to several highly-publicized captures or shootings of outlaws and bankrobbers like [[John Dillinger]], [[Alvin Karpis]] and [[Machine Gun Kelly]] the Bureau's powers were broadened and it was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in [[1935]]. In [[1939]], the FBI became pre-eminent in the field of domestic [[intelligence (information gathering)|intelligence]]. Hoover made changes such as expanding and combining [[fingerprint]] files in the Identification Division to compile the largest collection of fingerprints ever made. Hoover also helped to greatly expand the FBI's recruitment and create the FBI Laboratory, a division established in [[1932]] to examine evidence found by the FBI. |
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[[Image:Jedgarh.jpe|thumb|Hoover in 1935]] |
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Hoover was noted for his concern about—some would say obsession with—[[subversion (political)|subversion]]. He attacked and spied upon scores of suspected subversives and [[radical]]s throughout his career as FBI director. Hoover tended to exaggerate the dangers of subversives, and many believe he overstepped his bounds in his pursuit of eliminating this perceived threat. [[President Truman]] wrote in his memoirs: "The country had reason to be proud of and have confidence in our security agencies. They had kept us almost totally free of sabotage and [[espionage]] during the World War II". An example was his capture of the dangerous Nazi saboteurs in the [[Quirin]] affair. |
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Hoover amassed significant power by collecting files containing large amounts of compromising and potentially embarrassing information on scores of powerful people, especially [[politician]]s, which were kept separate from official FBI records. On his orders, the files were destroyed immediately after Hoover's death. In the [[1950s]], [[evidence (law)|evidence]] of Hoover's apparently cozy relations with the Mafia became grist for the [[media]] and his many detractors, after famed [[muckraking|muckraker]] [[Jack Anderson]] exposed the immense scope of the Mafia's [[organized crime]] network, a threat Hoover had long downplayed. Hoover's retaliation and continual harassment of Anderson lasted into the [[1970s]]. |
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Presidents [[Harry Truman]], [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Lyndon Johnson]] each considered firing Hoover, but concluded that the political cost of doing so would be too great. Hoover maintained strong support in [[Congress]] until his death, whereupon operational command of the Bureau passed to Associate Director [[W. Mark Felt|Mark Felt]]. Soon thereafter Nixon appointed [[L. Patrick Gray]], a Justice Department official with no FBI experience, as Acting Director with Felt remaining as Associate Director. As a historical note, Felt was revealed in 2005 to have been the legendary "[[Deep Throat (Watergate)|Deep Throat]]" during the [[Watergate]] scandal. Some of the people who Deep Throat's revelations helped put in prison—such as Nixon's chief counsel [[Chuck Colson]] and [[G. Gordon Liddy]]—contend that this was, at least in part, due to Felt's being passed over by Nixon as head of the FBI after Hoover's death in 1972. |
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The FBI Headquarters in [[Washington, D.C.]] is named after Hoover. Due to the controversial nature of Hoover's legacy, there have been periodic proposals to rename it. |
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==Personal life== |
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[[Image:Hoover_Tolson.jpg|thumb|right|FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Associate FBI Director Clyde Tolson.]] |
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Speculation and rumors that Hoover was a homosexual have been suggested. The allegation that he was also a [[Crossdressing|crossdresser]], however, has little if any basis in fact and is generally considered to be an [[urban legend]]. Hoover's right-hand man, [[Clyde Tolson]], was a constant companion for more than 40 years, and they often vacationed together. Hoover and Tolson were both lifelong bachelors, and Hoover lived with his mother until her death in [[1938]], when he was 43 years old. Hoover was raised a devout [[Presbyterian]] and considered the [[ministry]] as a career. Some critics said he used this to try to render his personal conduct (sexual or otherwise) above reproach during his tenure at the FBI. |
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Even within Hoover's own lifetime, journalists and other observers made observations that hinted at a hidden personal life. [[Walter Winchell]], the famed gossip columnist, once wrote a column that superficially extolled Hoover, while at the same time included many of the aforementioned peculiarities. A female journalist (in an article cited by Winchell), who managed to talk her way into an interview with Hoover, wrote an article sarcastically entitled, "Hoover: He Always Gets his Man, But he Never Found a Woman." |
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It has long been rumored that the [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]] and [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]] [[Mafia]] blackmailed Hoover with photos of him in drag and performing homosexual acts, which may partially explain why he allegedly never went after them (these were detailed by journalist [[Anthony Summers]]), but according to sources in the Mafia, no such photos existed.[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/021206.html] After Hoover was ordered to go after the Mafia, other sources claim, he pursued them zealously. However, [[Peter Maas]], a notable journalist, has criticized accusations that Hoover had deep ties with the [[Kennedy political family|Kennedy family]], and these allegations in turn were heavily criticized in Anthony Summers's book on [[Marilyn Monroe]]. |
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An FBI memorandum dated [[June 11]], [[1943]], reports on a woman spreading gossip of Hoover being "[[queer]]" and keeping "a large group of young boys around him." The memo reports the woman said she had overheard conversation at an adjoining restaurant in Baltimore in 1941.[http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/hoover1.html] |
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In light of this, one does not quite know how to take Hoover's supposed reply to a woman who asked him to "do something" about fellatio, "I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate commerce." |
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{{DFBI}} |
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==References in fiction== |
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[[J. Gander Hooter]], a [[fictional character]] featured in [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]]'s [[animated]] [[television]] series ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' is named after Hoover. Hooter is the dimunitive director of [[S.H.U.S.H.]]. |
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==Further reading== |
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* Gentry, Curt, ''J. Edgar Hoover: The man and the secrets'', Plume, 1991, ISBN 0-452-26904-0, LoC HV7911.H6G46 [[1992]] |
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* J. Edgar Hoover, ''Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It'', Pocket Books, [[1958]] (one of Hoover's many ghost-written books) |
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* {{fr}} - [[Marc Dugain]], ''La malédiction d'Edgar'' - (non official translation : Edgar's Curse) a Novel (French editor Gallimard [[2005]], ISBN 2-07-077379-5). Dugain is the writer of ''The Officer's Ward'' |
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* Summers, Anthony, ''Official and Confidential:The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover'', Putnam Pub Group, 1993, ISBN 0-399-13800-5, Details many negative claims concerning J. Edgar Hoover. |
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== External links == |
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{{wikiquote}} |
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* [http://www.zpub.com/notes/znote-jeh.html Spub.com] - 'J. Edgar Hoover [1895-1972]: Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1924 until his death in 1972' |
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*[http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1993/vo09no16/vo09no16_hoover.htm TheNewAmerican.com] - '"Assassinating" J. Edgar Hoover' |
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* [http://www.aim.org/publications/weekly_column/2001/08/24.html AIM.org] - 'The FBI Needs Another Hoover' |
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* [http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/2003/7.html AIM.org] - 'Hoover's dark secret?' |
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* [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/021206.html StraightDope.com] - 'The Straight Dope: Was J. Edgar Hoover a crossdresser?' |
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[[Category:1895 births|Hoover, J Edgar]] |
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[[Category:1972 deaths|Hoover, J Edgar]] |
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[[Category:Directors of the FBI|Hoover, J. Edgar]] |
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[[Category:Presbyterians|Hoover, J. Edgar]] |
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[[Category:People from Washington, D.C.|Hoover, J. Edgar]] |
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[[Category:Gay, lesbian or bisexual people|Hoover, J. Edgar]] |
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[[Category:Alpha Phi Omega honorary brothers|Hoover, J. Edgar]] |
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