1. THE RIGHT TO PROTECT
VS. THE RIGHT TO
PROTEST
REVOLUTIONS:

2. Early 1960’s ~ The Revolution Begins
 Revolution can begin small, with a single group or an
act of defiance.
 During the '60s, many individual Americans rose to
prominence as activist leaders-figureheads for the
rising tide of thousands upon thousands of voices
calling for peace, justice, freedom and equality.
 The government responded with tactics aimed at
isolating, controlling, and neutralizing the leaders of
rebellion.

3. People vs. Government
 Every activist conflict of the '60s can be distilled in a
single image of opposing forces at a barricade:
 on one side, the people attempt to exercise their rights
 on the other side, the government asserts its right to protect
the nation.
 During the '60s, these two simple objectives were not
viewed as compatible concepts.

4. FBI - FBI uses the Counter Intelligence Program
(COINTELPRO) to investigate and interfere with dissident groups.
 It's a covert program, initiated in '56 and intended from the
outset to operate beyond the approved limits of federal power.
 Beginning with infiltration of the Communist Party USA
(CPUSA), COINTELPRO rapidly spreads to:
 socialist groups
 right wing extremists
 black nationalist groups like the Nation of Islam
 New Left
 Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
 Weathermen.
 The FBI uses tactics and methods like surveillance,
recordings, anonymous letters, outright blackmail and IRS
investigations-anything to discredit activist leaders and create
organizational divisions.

5. 1968 ~
The White House draws the CIA into the domestic spy game.
 The CIA's (illegal) Operation CHAOS is supposed to
identify the foreign agitators behind the protests for
civil rights, peace, free speech, and so on.
 To manage the huge volume of data, the CIA creates
a computer index of 300,000 people, and maintains
in-depth files on 7,200 individuals and 100 groups in
America.
 Operations Merrimac and Resistance are added to
CHAOS, spying on peace groups, black activist
organizations, campus radicals and student groups.

6.  '60s, finally folding under threat of public exposure
and Congressional investigation in the early '70s.
The files of many public figures remain sealed, but a
growing number of secret dossiers (generally
censored) are becoming available through the
Freedom Of Information Act.