Aug 1999 Op-Ed in Washington Times by Ray Wannall

Unrelenting assaults against Hoover

By Ray Wannall

August 1, 1999

Op-Ed in the

Washington Times

In a series on the FBI, the History cable channel on July 22 aired "Operation SOLO," a program based on renowned author John Barron's popular book "Operation SOLO: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin" (1996, Regnery Publishing, Inc.). It was a good and worthwhile program. However, the producers, Towers Productions Inc., of Chicago, seemed unable to resist an opportunity to cast more barbs in the unceasing war against J. Edgar Hoover

In advertising their presentation, Towers Productions declared, "Gangsters and gunmen, spies and subversives - all are part of the FBI mythology, an image of infallibility crafted by J. Edgar Hoover during his 48 years as director and tarnished in the quarter-century since his death." In all honesty, this should have read "tarnished by the media in the quarter-century since his death."

John Barron revealed in detail an FBI counterintelligence operation that, beginning in the early 1950s, resulted in placing two brothers, Morris and Jack Childs, code named SOLO, into positions where Soviet leaders accepted them as trusted allies. The brothers completed 57 missions to the U.S.S.R. and other communist countries. Morris was identified in the TV program as "the central figure in perhaps the most secret operation in FBI history." Commentator Roger Mudd described him as "the U.S. spy who funneled Soviet secrets to us for nearly 30 years."

The program acknowledged that the Chinese communists also discussed policy with Morris. As a result, President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger "knew exactly what the Chinese response would be to an overture by the U.S.," and Nixon carved a foreign policy based in part on what SOLO reported.

The value and importance of the SOLO operation were readily apparent, but the producers cheapened their presentation by an attack on Hoover. A spin was placed on facts to suggest it was just "part of the FBI mythology, an image of infallibility crafted by J. Edgar Hoover." This was done, for example, by first presenting Hoover as "America' s leading anti-communist," then omitting vital information - the association between a Soviet intelligence officer and a known former communist who served as principal adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. - as well as engaging in sensationalism by indicating a Soviet spy was operating in the FBI while information in the Barron book specifically refuted this.

The producers fatuously claimed that Hoover knew from Operation SOLO and through "hundreds" of informants that the Communist Party never would have the power to overthrow the government, but that he nevertheless "would continue to push the boundaries of his power." Neither Hoover nor any other rational person ever believed the party could overthrow the U.S. government.

Operation SOLO conclusively proved the party was a wholly owned and controlled Soviet subsidiary engaged in dangerous subversion that threatened American security. Operation SOLO in no way expanded the power of Hoover. He never exploited it for purposes of publicity or personal gain.

The TV program alleged that Operation SOLO, together with an anti-subversion program titled COINTELPRO, would start the FBI down the road to the most embarrassing of abuses in FBI history. SOLO and COINTELPRO were wholly unrelated. SOLO abused or embarrassed nobody except Soviet oligarchs, their spies, and international communism.

From Mr. Barron's book, Towers Productions knew that in 1958 James Jackson, Communist Party secretary for "Negro and Southern affairs, " told Jack Childs that the most secret and guarded people, "party guys far removed from the top level," were in touch with, consulting with, and guiding Martin Luther King. Two years later, on May 6, 1960, Jack reported that Hunter Pitts [Jack] O'Dell, Stanley Levison, and Levison's brother Roy were involved in work connected to a "King mass meeting" to be held in Harlem later that month; that the party felt it to be to its advantage "to assign outstanding Party members" to work with King's group; and that party policy was to concentrate upon King.

The book also disclosed that Levison met King in the 1950s and subsequently attached himself to King as a personal confident and adviser. At his behest, King employed Jack O'Dell in the Southern Christian Leadership Council, King's organization. For years after 1956, Levison enjoyed the comradeship and collaboration of O'Dell, a secret member of the Communist Party's governing body, the National Committee. Further, the FBI discovered that Levison was regularly dealing with a sophisticated officer of the Soviet intelligence service known as the KGB - his name, Victor Lessiovsky.

Under pressure from President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy, King removed O'Dell, who remained a secret leader of the Communist Party, from his staff and promised to sever ties with KGB friend Levison. Duplicitously, he continued to maintain clandestine relations with both.

The program carefully omitted these incriminating facts. Instead, it falsely told the television audience that the FBI found no evidence of communist influence and alleged that the investigation "seemed motivated almost entirely by the hope of embarrassing King, both politically and personally." King never was a target of SOLO. The investigation of him was pursued with the knowledge and explicit authorization of Attorney General Kennedy, who sincerely was consecrated to the cause of civil rights and racial equality.

At one point, the off-screen commentator put a sensational spin on the facts by misrepresenting them. Morris throughout the long life of Operation SOLO lived in constant fear the Soviets might learn he was under FBI control, thus endangering his life. The commentator, referring to this, told about a meeting Childs had in Moscow in January 1967 with a high-level Kremlin official. He was shown a batch of papers containing information developed in the SOLO operation, and told that the papers were thrown into the yard of the Soviet Embassy in Washington. The commentator said the papers turned up when a Soviet spy came across information in FBI files that had been gathered during Childs' operation.

Mr. Barron's book clearly explained that the FBI tossed the papers into the embassy yard as part of a so-called "dangle" operation, devised to attempt to attract attention to a bureau informant who, if the bait were taken by Soviet intelligence officers, would offer to furnish the Soviets secret information for money. But the truth here was not nearly as sensational as the misrepresentation - a Soviet spy in the FBI.

Roger Mudd in closing the program solemnly intoned, "For half a century J. Edgar Hoover shaped and led America's crusade against communism, but once it became clear that the FBI's dirty tricks were used as much against the civil rights and anti-war movements as against the Communist Party, the legacy of Hoover was transformed from America' s protector to America's menace."

As much as anything else, deceptive reporting has been a major contribution to the unceasing war waged against Hoover beginning with his death in May 1972.

Ray Wannall is the retired assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.