Assault on the Left: The FBI and the Sixties Antiwar Movement

237 Pages·1997·0.851 MB·English

by  James K. Davis

ASSAULT
ON THE
LEFT

ASSAULT
ON THE
LEFT
The FBI and the Sixties
Antiwar Movement
JAMES KIRKPATRICK DAVIS
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Davis,JamesKirkpatrick.
AssaultontheLeft : theFBIandthesixtiesantiwarmovement /
JamesKirkpatrickDavis.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0–275–95455–2(alk.paper)
1. VietnameseConflict,1961–1975—Protestmovement—United
States. 2. UnitedStates.FederalBureauofInvestigation.
3. UnitedStates—Politicsandgovernment,—1963–1969. I. Title.
DS559.62.U6D38 1997
959.704'3373—dc20 96–44675
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable.
Copyright(cid:1)1997byJamesKirkpatrickDavis
Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe
reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe
expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:96–44675
ISBN:0–275–95455–2
Firstpublishedin1997
PraegerPublishers,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881
AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
TM
Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe
PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational
InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For
Winifred Lee Kirkpatrick Davis
John Plantz Davis II
and
Whitney Anne Kirkpatrick Davis Kretsinger

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1. The 279th Meeting of the National Security Council 1
2. The New Left and the Emergence of Anti-Vietnam War
Protest 21
3. The New Left and the Confrontation at Columbia 39
4. Firestorm in Chicago 63
5. January–June 1969 107
6. The New Mobilization Committee to End the War in
Vietnam and the Vietnam Moratorium Committee 137
7. Cambodia, Kent State, Etc. 161
8. The End of the New Left COINTELPRO 197
Selected Bibliography 219
Index 223

Acknowledgments
Iamindebtedtoanumberofindividualswhoprovidedmewithvaluable
assistance in the preparation of this book.
Clarence M. Kelley, former FBI Director and Kansas City Chief of
Police, provided assistance and expert commentary based upon his ex-
traordinarylawenforcementcareer.EdwardS.Miller,DeputyAssistant
FBI Director (Retired), read portions of the text and provided com-
mentary.
TheFranklinD.RooseveltLibraryatHydePark,NewYork,provided
information and documents regarding the initial authorization to de-
velop FBI domestic counterintelligenceprograms.
InformationontheactualbeginningsoftheNewLeftCOINTELPRO
and the crucial National Security Council deliberations within the Ei-
senhower administrationcamefromtheDwightD.EisenhowerLibrary
in Abilene, Kansas.
WilliamC.Davidon,ProfessorofMathematicsatHaverfordCollege;
Professor Thomas E. Ingerson, Tucson, Arizona; Reverend Edwin Ed-
wards,UnitedChurchofChristinNewHaven,Connecticut;DennisG.
Kuby, Ministry of Ecology in Berkeley, California; and EugeneKazaof
Portland, Oregon, were all helpful in providing their firsthand impres-
sions of selected New Left COINTELPRO operations.
Gary M. Stern, research associate at the Center forNationalSecurity
StudiesgathereddataformeasdidFredL.Lee,apoliticalscholarliving
in Kansas City.
x Acknowledgments
Jan Shinpoch, Director of Administrative Operations attheNational
SecurityArchiveinWashington,D.C.,researchedarchivefilesandmade
hundredsofFBIcounterintelligencedocumentsavailabletomeinman-
ageable form.
I am also indebted to John M. Pfeffer, Librarian with the Data Base
and Newspaper Center of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
CarlStern,originallythelawcorrespondentwithNBCNews,wasthe
first journalist to pursue the COINTELPRO story. Mr. Stern provided
me with a great deal of information and documents, including his first-
hand knowledge of the New Left COINTELPRO.
JoanMurrayandthestaffofInformattheMinneapolisPublicLibrary
kindly fulfilled many requests for newspaper and periodical data.Ialso
receivedhelpfromSteveBinnsoftheLindaHallLibraryinKansasCity,
Missouri, and from the government documents librarians at the Miller
Nichols Library located on the University of Missouri at Kansas City
campus.
Background information for much of the text was provided by the
many capable librarians at the Inter Library Loan Department, Kansas
City Public Library.
John T. Elliff, a political scholar based in Washington, D.C., read
portionsofthetextandgavemethebenefitsofhismanyyearsofstudy.
ProfessorTonyG.PovedaattheStateUniversityofNewYorkinPlatts-
burg, an expert in the study of the FBI, was very helpful.
I am particularly indebted to an extraordinary group of government,
history and English professors at Michigan State.
Susan Cowlback, an editorial assistant at the New Times in Phoenix,
researchedfilesforbackgrounddataonaselectedCOINTELPROtarget
as did Reann Lydick, Research Librarian at Monroe County Public Li-
brary in Bloomington, Indiana.
Manuscript typing and end note editing were very capably handled
by Nevey Patterson Butler, Mylene Larson Brinson, and Margaret R.
Bates. Captain Tom Moore, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), Gregory D.
Black, Professor of Communications Studies at the University of Mis-
souri, Kansas City, and Whitney Anne Kirkpatrick Davis Kretsingerall
made several excellent suggestions for the book. Many thanksto James
R. Dunton, my editor at Praeger Publishers.