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 in response to requests by The State and other media. 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 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.

What has been released of Thurmond’s file provides never-before-seen glimpses into the life of an S.C. political icon who retired in January 2003 after having served an unprecedented 48 years in the Senate. He died, at 100, in June of that year.

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.

At the same time, the files show that as Thurmond won election to higher and higher office, the FBI saw him as an increasingly valuable resource. At other times, though, the FBI was wary of his publicity-seeking.

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.”

FROM THE ORDINARY TO THE INTRIGUING

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.

But the wealth of information in the released file is nearly silent on many aspects of Thurmond’s life for which he is best known.

For example, Thurmond was an ardent segregationist in the first part of his career, but the file makes less mention of his opposition to the civil rights movement than might be expected.

No mention is made of Essie Mae Washington-Williams, the daughter Thurmond fathered with a black maid working in his family’s Edgefield home. Thurmond and Washington-Williams, now 79, publicly denied their relationship. After Thurmond’s death, Washington-Williams revealed her parentage and wrote an autobiography.

The pages released Monday also barely touch on — or don’t refer at all to:

• Thurmond’s service in the U.S. Army during World War II

• His switch in 1964 from the Democratic to Republican party

• The key role he played in sinking U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas’ bid for chief justice

• His influence with the Nixon White House

• The death of his older daughter, Nancy Moore Thurmond, in 1993.

Efforts to reach the Thurmond family for comment were unsuccessful Monday.

The FBI edited the release; throughout are spaces where names are blanked out.

The bureau cites guidelines that allow editing to protect matters of national security and the privacy of individuals.

For example, the names of those who threatened Thurmond — but were not prosecuted — are removed. The name of his wife — Nancy Thurmond — is frequently excised, even in casual correspondence.

And one page of the file includes a picture of only Thurmond’s head. The rest of the photo of his family, sent to Hoover at Christmas 1974, is edited out.

‘HE IS A GOOD FRIEND OF THE BUREAU ... ’

FBI memos repeatedly characterized Thurmond’s long-standing relations with the bureau as cordial and fruitful.

“He is a good friend of the bureau and has been of considerable assistance to us on the Hill in legislation concerning the FBI,” according to an internal FBI memo on Jan. 12, 1968.

In 1974, FBI director Clarence Kelley wrote to Thurmond, thanking him for his “forceful defense” of the bureau in the Judiciary Committee as U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and others tried to make bureau files more accessible under the Freedom of Information Act.

The proposed change in the law, to the bureau’s delight, was dropped. Kelley wrote to Thurmond: “Once again you have done us a great service.”

And the bureau did services for Thurmond — small and large.

Members of the Thurmond family and Thurmond’s Washington interns enjoyed tours of FBI headquarters with greater access than those available to the public.

On a May 14, 1969, FBI tour, Thurmond’s party, accompanied by an intern from his office, visited the bureau for a tour that included a photo opportunity with Hoover in his office.

As for more serious favors, 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.

OCCASIONAL PERIODS OF TENSION

Some of Thurmond’s file — especially his personal letters to and from Hoover — reads like a correspondence between polite Victorian ladies. A typical letter from director Kelley to Thurmond in 1974 begins: “Thank you for your thoughtfulness recently expressed by your Christmas greeting.”

Thurmond gushed admiration for Hoover. On July 14, 1969, he wrote the director: “It would be deeply appreciated if you would send me an autographed photograph of yourself. It will be a pleasure to have it hung in my new office along with other distinguished Americans.”

Hoover sent Thurmond an autographed photo three days later, along with a note that read, “I am honored by your request.”

But the generally cordial relationship between the bureau and Thurmond also was marked by periods of tension.

At times, the FBI was wary of Thurmond.

In 1961, for example, after Thurmond contacted a high-level FBI official about his anti-communism campaign, the official wrote a memo saying:

“Senator Thurmond has been cooperative; however (he) is most anxious to obtain as much publicity as possible. Our dealings with him will, of course, be on a very cautious basis.”

And at times, Thurmond’s office grew frustrated with the bureau.

In 1979, an FBI memo recounts the “displeasure” expressed by a Thurmond aide who wanted a quick response from the bureau over the possible communist ties of a judicial nominee Thurmond was trying to discredit. Thurmond wanted the FBI to respond orally. The bureau policy was to put its answers in writing.

“A direct oral response to Senator Thurmond’s current interest ... would be quite irregular,” a bureau official wrote.

THREATS AGAINST THURMOND

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.

In 1981, a suspicious letter arrived at Thurmond’s Charleston office. A local police officer called to the scene pulled out his .410-gauge shotgun and shot the letter, causing some in the building to conclude, mistakenly, that a letter bomb had exploded.

The letter had contained a cigar. The FBI concluded in a memo: “The letter is believed to be a goodwill gesture on the part of the sender and no further investigation is being conducted.”

AN EARLY INTEREST IN THE AGENCY

Thurmond formed an attachment to the FBI early in his career.

In 1938, when he was a circuit court judge based in Edgefield, he paid what an agent characterized as a “social visit” to the FBI’s Charlotte bureau.

Afterward, Edward Scheidt, the special agent in charge, wrote to Hoover about how Thurmond had come to thank the bureau for criminal records he considered invaluable to his court.

Judge Thurmond was given a tour of the office and “expressed keen interest” in its work, Scheidt wrote. The agent then suggested that Thurmond be added to the bureau’s mailing list to receive copies of Hoover’s addresses.

Hoover nourished the relationship, writing Thurmond at important times in Thurmond’s personal and political life. Hoover was sometimes made aware of events in Thurmond’s life by FBI agents who kept up with Thurmond and forwarded memos to Washington.

In 1956, 1960 and 1966, Hoover wrote Thurmond to congratulate him on his re-election to the Senate. Hoover also wrote Thurmond condolence letters on the death of his mother in the 1950s and on the death of his first wife, Jean, in 1960. Hoover wrote Thurmond a congratulatory letter in 1968 on his second marriage.

Thurmond’s treatment of Hoover over the years bordered on idol worship.

In 1967, Thurmond had reprinted in the Congressional Record an editorial commemorating Hoover’s 50 years with the Justice Department, then sent Hoover a copy of the Congressional Record page containing the tribute.

“It is always a great pleasure to offer such sentiments wider distribution,” Thurmond told Hoover in an Aug. 21, 1967, letter.

THURMOND, THE FBI AND THE WEATHERMEN

In 1977, Thurmond stood up for FBI agents whom even the FBI had labeled “renegades,” but who later were shown to have acted under FBI orders.

These agents, working out of the FBI’s New York City office, had — without warrants — wiretapped and opened the mail of the Weather Underground, a communist group that used violence to oppose to the Vietnam War and other government policies.

Thurmond made a speech on the Senate floor decrying the prosecution of former FBI special agent John J. Kearney. It has “dealt a devastating blow to the already faltering morale of the FBI,” Thurmond said.

Kearney and his colleagues, he continued, “are being prosecuted for carrying out orders, which, at the time, they believed to be lawful and authorized by their superiors.”

Thurmond then urged Americans to contribute to these agents’ legal defense funds.

Then-FBI director Clarence Kelley wrote Thurmond back, thanking him for his support:

“It was most thoughtful of you to bring this matter to the attention of your colleagues in the Senate, and all of us in the FBI are deeply grateful.”

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com. Reach Monk at (803) 771-8344 or jmonk@thestate.com.