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Enemies: History of the FBI

So far, this has been a book almost exclusively about J. Edgar Hoover, a sign of how influential he was and of how new the FBI actually is.  Most chilling aspect of the tale is the death of FDR.  Truman knew very little (he'd been VP for two months) when he became president.  He did know enough, though, to be cautious in his support of Hoover. He feared an American secret police. And for good reason.  Hoover, an anti-communist from 1919, supported round-ups of communists, believed that communists were ready to do Stalin's bidding, feared terrorist attacks using biological, chemical or nuclear weapons (he was ahead of his time on this) etc.  Hoover also opposed the formation of the CIA as it developed. He wanted an agency much smaller.
Interesting book, though maybe more about the FBI than I care to know.
Nixon just made his first appearance--questioning possible communists as a 34 year-old congressman.  Hoover immediately is drawn to Nixon.

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