User:Bill31416

There has been extensive coverage of Martin Luther King, Jr's troubles with the FBI. As Donner's book "The Age of Surveillance" points out many other individuals and groups, integrationist and segregationist, were targeted by the FBI and other intelligence agencies. Those targeted were subject to "agressive" intelligence. That is actions to hinder or harm the organizations and individuals. Such activity was so widespread that it appears to represent an official, but clandestine, policy. This raises the possibility that the federal government or some part thereof had decided racial agitation during the Cold War could be an intolerable threat to national security. Attempting to control racial agitation by legal action might actually increase racial animosities so clandestine action was required. In view of the extent of this suppression of lower level racial agitators it was probably felt essential to "neutralize" Dr. King. The same possibility occurs in the case of George Wallace. In both cases these assassinations or attempts were investigated by the federal government which may have been a party to them. This raises more unanswered questions about these events.