Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The FBI Spied for LBJ’s Campaign
Wall Street Journal ^ | May 24, 2018 | Lee Edwards

Posted on 05/25/2018 6:25:54 AM PDT by reaganaut1

Is it unthinkable that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would spy on a presidential campaign for political purposes? I can personally attest that it has happened before—during Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign.

Every poll agreed that President Lyndon B. Johnson would easily win the election against the conservative Sen. Goldwater of Arizona. But LBJ wanted a landslide so he could implement his Great Society vision without resistance and go down in history as one of America’s greatest presidents. For Johnson, extremism in the pursuit of victory was no vice.

Thus was born Johnson’s “Anti-Campaign” to smear Goldwater’s candidacy. The operation was run from the second floor of the West Wing by veteran Washington-based Democrats like Leonard Marks, who would become director of the U.S. Information Agency, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an assistant secretary of labor and later a U.S. senator from New York.

Typical of their black-bag politics was scheduling Democratic speakers before and after Goldwater’s appearance in a city, smothering his message with pro-Johnson, anti-Goldwater rhetoric. Advance knowledge of Goldwater’s travel schedule and advance copies of his remarks were provided by a spy the Central Intelligence Agency had planted in Goldwater headquarters.

Former intelligence officer E. Howard Hunt, best known for his role as an orchestrator of the Watergate bugging, told a Senate committee in 1973 that his CIA superior had ordered him to infiltrate the Goldwater campaign. Hunt claimed to have questioned the order, only to be told that it had been a personal request of President Johnson and that the information he recovered would be delivered to a White House aide.

CIA Director William Colby confirmed the White House’s role in the illegal surveillance while addressing a congressional hearing in 1975.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 1973; anticampaign; cia; colby; danielmoynihan; ehowardhunt; fbi; goldwater; lbj; leonardmarks; lyndonbjohnson; moynihan; patrickmoynihan; williamcolby
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

1 posted on 05/25/2018 6:25:54 AM PDT by reaganaut1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Hoover spied on everyone back then. YAWN


2 posted on 05/25/2018 6:26:41 AM PDT by bmwcyle (People who do not study history are destine to believe really ignorant statements.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

So what’s this then? The everybody does it defense?


3 posted on 05/25/2018 6:28:31 AM PDT by mewzilla (Has the FBI been spying on members of Congress?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Fortunately Obumbles isn’t half as smart as LBJ! If he was, we’d likely have a hot CW2!


4 posted on 05/25/2018 6:28:40 AM PDT by gr8eman (Since God has been banished from our classrooms, Satan has filled the void.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

btt


5 posted on 05/25/2018 6:28:57 AM PDT by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mewzilla

“So what’s this then? The everybody does it defense?”

After 18 months of emphatic denial, and ridicule of anyone who cared about it.


6 posted on 05/25/2018 6:34:36 AM PDT by treetopsandroofs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

I, personally, suspect LBJ was guilty of far worse than that.


7 posted on 05/25/2018 6:38:17 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mewzilla

“everyone does it defense”?

Sounds more like “we always do it.”


8 posted on 05/25/2018 6:40:08 AM PDT by buridan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: bmwcyle

“Hoover spied on everyone back then. YAWN”

I only read the excerpt, but weird that the title clearly says FBI, but the article is talking about the CIA.

Again, only going by the excerpt.


9 posted on 05/25/2018 6:40:17 AM PDT by safeasthebanks ("The most rewarding part, was when he gave me my money!" - Dr. Nick)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hammer
I, personally, suspect LBJ was guilty of far worse than that.

There is much evidence that LBJ was responsible for at least five or six murders, and that his button man was a guy named Malcolm (Mac) Wallace.

10 posted on 05/25/2018 6:42:34 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

“But LBJ wanted a landslide so he could implement his Great Society vision without resistance and go down in history as one of America’s greatest presidents.”

Ha! He was an evil SOB. Evil. Son. Of. A. Bitch. He deserves his own ring of Hell.


11 posted on 05/25/2018 6:52:11 AM PDT by bk1000 (I stand with Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Title should be DEMOCRATS have used intelligence agencies to spy on Presidential campaigns before.


12 posted on 05/25/2018 6:58:22 AM PDT by subterfuge (RIP T.P.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: safeasthebanks
No. The full article is mostly about the FBI, not CIA.

To avoid wsj's member's-only block:
Full WSJ article

13 posted on 05/25/2018 7:00:35 AM PDT by CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC ("Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt" - Pr. Herbert Hoover)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hammer

Every time I drive through Johnson City, I feel dirty. They renamed the town after LBJ. Ass kissing, maybe?

Also, I was married at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, a decision I now regret.


14 posted on 05/25/2018 7:14:57 AM PDT by T-Bone Texan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: bk1000

In his last months in office, having dropped out of the nomination race, LBJ rammed through Congress the Omnibus Crime Bill, aka GCA ‘68, which plagues gun owners to this day.

But....at the signing ceremony, Johnson was spitting mad that the final bill did not contain what he really wanted; Federal registration of all firearms and licensing of all owners. He railed at those who blocked these draconian measures. 1968 was part of an era when gun control meant outlawing private ownership of handguns, such as in Britain since 1997.

GCA ‘68 was LBJ’s revenge for the assassinations of JFK, MLK, & RFK which he saw as part of a vast right wing plot.

Johnson croaked in 1973, not yet 65 years old. Karma’s a bitch.


15 posted on 05/25/2018 7:17:41 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam. Buy ammo.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: elcid1970

If LBJ sought “revenge” for the murder of JFK, he should have taken it out on himself. Read Roger Stone’s book on the JFK assassination some day; the “coincidences”, including the fingerprints at the Sixth Floor of the Texas School Book Depository of the hit man LBJ used to off his problems, are a bit too persistent.


16 posted on 05/25/2018 7:21:12 AM PDT by laconic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: bmwcyle
Hoover spied on everyone back then. YAWN

His brain didn't hold more metadata than today's nsa comupters, because he only held onto what he needed.

17 posted on 05/25/2018 7:22:24 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Is this suppose to be an excuse for what Obama did?


18 posted on 05/25/2018 7:28:57 AM PDT by GOPJ (Code name/Wiretapfever/NationalSecurityLetters/Unmasking/Changing rules/MSM strategy/Leaks-Attkisson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bmwcyle
LBJ was a KKK member, a criminal and a typical democrat thug. LBJ should NOT be an example for politicians on how to act any more than Charles Manson should be an example for citizens on how to act.

We all need to 'get real' about democrat monsters. They are not role models.

I suspect the purpose of this story is to set the stage for an 'everybody does it' defense of Obama... which is crap.

If Obama was involved - he and his fellow criminals and thugs should go to prison.

Not here in the United States - but in a country like they wanted to create here: a corrupt third world hellhole with strong secret police. Iran would do nicely... they would fit right in with the 'Mullah Mentality'...

19 posted on 05/25/2018 7:47:35 AM PDT by GOPJ (Code name/Wiretapfever/NationalSecurityLetters/Unmasking/Changing rules/MSM strategy/Leaks-Attkisson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: bmwcyle

What’s your point? That ‘everyone does it’... so Obama’s thugs should get a pass?

Gimme a break.


20 posted on 05/25/2018 7:48:40 AM PDT by GOPJ (Code name/Wiretapfever/NationalSecurityLetters/Unmasking/Changing rules/MSM strategy/Leaks-Attkisson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson