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Article published Mar 1, 2005
FBI
file made public
WASHINGTON -- For more than 50 years, U.S.
Sen. Strom Thurmond and the FBI -- director J. Edgar Hoover in particular --
mutually benefited from a close, hidden relationship that gave the South
Carolina politician access to the FBI's secret files.The relationship is
documented in Thurmond's FBI file, parts of which the bureau released Monday.
Such releases are made only after the subject of a file has died or when a
living subject gives permission.Monday's release is about 600 pages, weighs
nearly 6 pounds and covers the period from October 1938 -- when as a young judge
Thurmond paid a "social visit" to the bureau's Charlotte, N.C., office -- to
January 1995, when Thurmond was in his seventh term as a U.S. senator.The
balance of Thurmond's file -- about 1,700 pages -- will be released later.The
Thurmond file exposes the usually concealed intersection of politics and law
enforcement -- a nexus where politicians enjoy access to confidential files on
private citizens and groups.Thurmond and Hoover -- an almost mythic law
enforcement figure who was the FBI's longest-serving director and a zealous
anti-communist -- corresponded for decades.Among other favors, the bureau
carried out secret investigations for Thurmond.An agent in Savannah wrote in a
memo to FBI headquarters in 1954, the year Thurmond first won election to the
U.S. Senate:"Mr. Thurmond has excellent political connections in South Carolina
and throughout the South.… (As a senator) he can and will be of material
assistance to the bureau in political and related matters both in South Carolina
and nationally."The pages released Monday include details both mundane and
fascinating:• Despite his close relationship with the FBI, field agents in 1948
sent Hoover detailed evaluations of then-Gov. Thurmond's presidential bid as the
nominee of the segregationist States Rights Party.• One agent's conclusion, in a
memo to Hoover, was that Thurmond is "sincere," "thoroughly honest," "cannot be
bought financially" and "slightly sluggish mentally."• Thurmond tried to use the
FBI to discredit civil rights leaders -- including the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. -- judicial nominees and others he disagreed with, often trying to establish
a link between these people and communist groups.• Thurmond received threats
from angry constituents and others, some of whom said they would harm or kill
the senator.• Thurmond received a copy of the FBI's internal bulletin every time
a South Carolinian wrote an article in it.Thurmond used the FBI in 1959 to
conduct at least one private investigation.After receiving an anonymous crank
letter, Thurmond grew suspicious that it was written by a former staffer. He
forwarded the letter, together with a signed letter by the ex-employee, and
asked the bureau to determine whether they had been written on the same
typewriter.Thurmond said he wouldn't tell anyone what the bureau found. He only
wanted to know "so that he could keep his guard up in the future," according to
the FBI memo.In response to Thurmond's request, the FBI used its laboratory to
ascertain that the typewriter keys on the two letters were identical, according
to a Feb. 9, 1959, memo.According to the file, Thurmond received threats during
his political career -- from the offhand to the truly menacing.In 1973, one S.C.
man, angry with Thurmond for defending President Richard Nixon, called the
Florence Morning News and said: "If the senator comes in this vicinity, he is in
danger," and then threatened to get a gun.In 1977, after Thurmond appeared on
"Face the Nation," a man called CBS and threatened Thurmond. Washington, D.C.,
police later escorted Thurmond to his scheduled flight at National Airport.