The FBI's secret counterintelligence program against the New Left Antiwar Movement

Abstract or Introduction

In the 1960s and 1970s one of the most controversial policies of the American
government was its intervention in the Vietnam War. A whole nation was divided into so
called doves and hawks, the former were fighting and demonstrating for peace whereas
the latter supported the government’s policies concerning Vietnam.
A very influential and large group of the Antiwar Movement was the New Left, the main
platform of the white students.
In the following, the author will give some information about this group and examine the
actions of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) taken to harm or even destroy that
part of the Antiwar Movement. These actions were manifested in the so called
Counterintelligence Program, which was shortened to the abbreviation Cointelpro.
As there is just one source on which all the literature concerning this topic is based its not
that easy to evaluate in how far all the published material is really true or just serves some
conspiracy theories, which were very common in that time. Especially in the Sixties, when
the Cold War reached its climax in the Cuban Missiles Crises in 1963 and the
assassination of famous people like John F. Kennedy in the same year and Martin Luther
King five years later supported the offspring of many conspiracy theories. So in the
aftermath of that turbulent decade these theories continued to spread and were seen as true
by the majority of the American people because of the Watergate Affaire in 1972 and
other revelations of scandals by the press. Even today after September, 11th 2001 a lot of
conspiracy theories arose. [...]