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J. Edgar Hoover, Public Enemy No. 1 | The New Yorker

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The F.B.I. director promised to save American democracy from those who would subvert it—while his secret programs subverted it from within.

Save this story Save this story One morning in the fall of 1971, President Richard Nixon set out to fire J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the F.B.I., who had ruled over the agency like a potentate since 1924. The two men were longtime friends, united by their political affinities, including a bone-deep antipathy to the American left, Old and New, and a tendency to demonize their critics. Over the years, Nixon and his wife, Pat, had socialized often with Hoover and his companion, Clyde Tolson. They had even vacationed together in the fifties, at a seaside resort in La Jolla, California, owned b

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