Return to
Contents PageReturn to Home PagePOSTWAR AMERICA
In February 1946 Stalin gave a public address in which he implied that
future wars were inevitable until Communism replaced capitalism worldwide.
Events in Europe and North America convinced Congress that Stalin was well
on his way to achieving his goal. The Russian veto prevented the United
Nations from curbing Soviet expansion under its auspices.
Americans feared Communist expansion was not limited to Europe. By 1947,
ample evidence existed that pro-Soviet individuals had infiltrated the
American Government. In June, 1945, the FBI raided the offices of Amerasia,
a magazine concerned with the Far East, and discovered a large number of
classified State Department documents. Several months later the Canadians
arrested 22 people for trying to steal atomic secrets. Previously, Americans
felt secure behind their monopoly of the atomic bomb. Fear of a Russian bomb
now came to dominate American thinking. The Soviets detonated their own bomb
in 1949.
Counteracting the Communist threat became a paramount focus of government at
all levels, as well as the private sector. While U.S. foreign policy
concentrated on defeating Communist expansion abroad, many U.S. citizens
sought to defeat the Communist threat at home. The American Communist Party
worked through front organizations or influenced other Americans who agreed
with their current propaganda ("fellow travelers").
Since 1917, the FBI and its predecessor agencies had investigated suspected
acts of espionage and sabotage. In 1939 and again in 1943, Presidential
directives had authorized the FBI to carry out investigations of threats to
national security. This role was clarified and expanded under Presidents
Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Any public or private agency or individual
with information about subversive activities was urged to report it to the
FBI. A poster to that effect was distributed to police departments
throughout the country. At the same time, it warned Americans to "avoid
reporting malicious gossip or idle rumors." The FBI's authority to conduct
background investigations on present and prospective government employees
also expanded dramatically in the postwar years. The 1946 Atomic Energy Act
gave the FBI "responsibility for determining the loyalty of individuals
...having access to restricted Atomic Energy data." Later, executive orders
from both Presidents Truman and Eisenhower gave the FBI responsibility for
investigating allegations of disloyalty among federal employees. In these
cases, the agency requesting the investigation made the final determination;
the FBI only conducted the investigation and reported the results. Many
suspected and convicted spies, such as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, had been
federal employees. Therefore, background investigations were considered to
be just as vital as cracking major espionage cases.
Despite the threats to the United States of subversion and espionage, the
FBI's extended jurisdiction, and the time-consuming nature of background
investigations, the Bureau did not surpass the number of Agents it had
during World War II--or its yearly wartime budget--until the Korean War in
the early 1950s. After the Korean War ended, the number of Agents stabilized
at about 6,200, while the budget began a steady climb in 1957.
Several factors converged to undermine domestic Communism in the 1950s.
Situations like the Soviet defeat of the Hungarian rebellion in 1956 caused
many members to abandon the American Communist Party. However, the FBI also
played a role in diminishing Party influence. The Bureau was responsible for
the investigation and arrest of alleged spies and Smith Act violators, most
of whom were convicted. Through Hoover's speeches, articles, testimony, and
books like Masters of Deceit, the FBI helped alert the public to the
Communist threat.
The FBI's role in fighting crime also expanded in the postwar period through
its assistance to state and local law enforcement and through increased
jurisdictional responsibility.
Advances in forensic science and technical development enabled the FBI to
devote a significant proportion of its resources to assisting state and
local law enforcement agencies. One method of continuing assistance was
through the National Academy. Another was to use its greater resources to
help states and localities solve their cases.
A dramatic example of aid to a state occurred after the midair explosion of
a plane over Colorado in 1955. The FBI Laboratory examined hundreds of
airplane parts, pieces of cargo, and the personal effects of passengers. It
pieced together evidence of a bomb explosion from passenger luggage, then
painstakingly looked into the backgrounds of the 44 victims. Ultimately,
Agents identified the perpetrator and secured his confession, then turned
the case over to Colorado authorities who successfully prosecuted it in a
state court.
At the same time, Congress gave the FBI new federal laws with which to fight
civil rights violations, racketeering, and gambling.
Up to this time, the interpretation of federal civil rights statutes by the
Supreme Court was so narrow that few crimes, however heinous, qualified to
be investigated by federal agents.
The turning point in federal civil rights actions occurred in the summer of
1964, with the murder of voting registration workers Michael Schwerner,
Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney near Philadelphia, Mississippi. At the
Department of Justice's request, the FBI conducted the investigation as it
had in previous, less-publicized racial incidents. The case against the
perpetrators took years to go through the courts. Only after 1966, when the
Supreme Court made it clear that federal law could be used to prosecute
civil rights violations, were seven men found guilty. By the late 1960s, the
confluence of unambiguous federal authority and local support for civil
rights prosecutions allowed the FBI to play an influential role in enabling
African Americans to vote, serve on juries, and use public accommodations on
an equal basis.
Involvement of the FBI in organized crime investigations also was hampered
by the lack of possible federal laws covering crimes perpetrated by
racketeers. After Prohibition, many mob activities were carried out locally,
or if interstate, they did not constitute major violations within the
Bureau's jurisdiction.
An impetus for federal legislation occurred in 1957 with the discovery by
Sergeant Croswell of the New York State Police that many of the best known
mobsters in the United States had met together in upstate New York. The FBI
collected information on all the individuals identified at the meeting,
confirming the existence of a national organized-crime network. However, it
was not until an FBI Agent persuaded mob insider Joseph Valachi to testify
that the public learned firsthand of the nature of La Cosa Nostra, the
American "mafia."
Although federal racketeering and gambling statutes were passed in the 1950s
and early 1960s to aid the Bureau's fight against mob influence, the two
strongest weapons for combatting organized crime were given to the FBI
during President Richard Nixon's Administration. The Omnibus Crime Control
and Safe Streets Act of 1968 provided for the use of court-ordered
electronic surveillance in the investigation of certain specified
violations. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO)
Statute of 1970 allowed organized groups to be prosecuted for all of their
diverse criminal activities, without the crimes being linked by a
perpetrator or all-encompassing conspiracy. Along with greater use of Agents
for undercover work by the late 1970s, these provisions helped the FBI
develop cases that, in the 1980s, put almost all the major traditional crime
family heads in prison.
A national tragedy produced another expansion of FBI jurisdiction. When
President Kennedy was assassinated, the crime was a local homicide; no
federal law addressed the murder of a President. Nevertheless, President
Lyndon B. Johnson tasked the Bureau with conducting the investigation.
Congress then passed a new law to ensure that any such act in the future
would be a federal crime.