Civi américaine

Commentary on Noam Chomsky, « COINTELPRO : what the * was it ? » (March 12, 1978) 

This pamphlet, published on March 12, 1978 was written by Noam Chomsky, a renowned American linguist and left-wing intellectual born in 1928 who opposed, among other things, the Vietnam War, American imperialism and the shift towards conservatism that started in the 70s. It is addressed to all Americans and possibly to people abroad. 1978 is the end of a conservative decade. After the liberal tide of the 60s, marked by Kennedy’s and Johnson’s presidencies, the 70s is dominated by Nixon’s two terms and Jimmy Carter’s unclear agenda.  

Chomsky denounces the violence of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and the extent of its activities to numerous liberal groups (“in scope of activities and level of violence” l. 36) through one particular program implemented by the FBI: COINTELPRO, which strongly impacted “the cultural and political climate of American life” (l. 43). Indeed, at the end of the decade, this climate was poisoned by low trust in government as the executive branch of power was marked by abuse. The FBI, which is a federal agency, was part of the problem. 

Although the US takes pride in being one of the oldest western democracies (the American War of Independence, which allowed the US to become a democracy, was a model for the French Revolution), this pamphlet questions the relationship between the US and democratic values in the 1970s. In a context of executive abuse represented in particular by the violence of COINTELPRO, it is hard to see in the US the democratic model it pretends to be.

First, we will see how Chomsky denounces the scope and violence of COINTELPRO. Then, we will show how this denunciation takes place in a broader context of executive abuse in the 70s. 

As the title of this pamphlet indicates, Chomsky vehemently denounces the wrongdoings of COINTELPRO, as COINTELPRO seems to contradict the FBI’s mission of protecting the US. 

What is COINTELPRO? Chomsky answers the question by presenting concrete, striking examples of COINTELPRO’s scope and violence. Paragraph 4 lists the various left-wing groups targeted by the FBI’s program while paragraphs 2 and 3 focus on one specific case presented as the “most notorious” example of COINTELPRO’s abuses (l. 14). Instead of giving a technical definition of COINTELPRO, Chomsky chooses to describe its violence in order to better reach his readers. Vivid images are featured, in particular that of Hampton lying “in bed, possibly drugged” and “murdered in cold blood” (ll. 19-20). With the same goal in mind, he also offers a broader vision of COINTELPRO’s crimes in paragraphs 1, 4 and 5, providing the readers with the analytical framework that allows them to better understand the “effect” of the program’s activities on “the cultural and political climate of American life” (l. 43). Therefore, the structure of Chomsky’s pamphlet combining specific examples and analytical reflections exemplifies the impact of his denunciation on the reader.

The language used by this famous linguist also contributes to the impact of his denunciation. The striking comparison on line 15 (“a pre-dawn Gestapo-style police raid”) establishes an explicit parallel between the FBI and the Nazi regime. More unexpected however is the ironic tone that the author sometimes takes in order to highlight the brutality of the FBI. Fred Hampton’s murder is called a “prank” on line 21, suggesting the amateurism of the secret agency, while “free breakfast programs for poor children” (ll. 25-26) are sarcastically called “subversive” in order to show that the FBI drifted away from its original mission, that of protecting people. The reference to “American exceptionalism” (l.38) is also deeply ironic as it allows to question a seminal American myth dating back to Winthorp’s sermon on the creation of a “city upon a hill” on board of the Arbella in 1630. According to Chomsky, the US is exceptional indeed, but for sad reasons.  

As Chomsky reveals, COINTELPRO constantly targeted the “New Left” (l. 35) by trying to undermine a variety of liberal groups whose diversity is well reflected by the long list in paragraph 4, from “the Communist Party” to “the various Black movements of the 1960s” (ll. 33-34). The political dimension of COINTELPRO’s action is obvious. COINTELPRO, which is the acronym of Counter Intelligence Program, began in 1956, under a Republican president, Eisenhower (1953-1961). In an atmosphere of McCarthyism, COINTELPRO was designed to weaken the American Communist Party. However, the program was later enlarged to include the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War Groups, and the underground press. It is little surprising that COINTELPRO developed in the 60s, a liberal decade dominated by the “New Left”, i. e. the hippie counterculture movement that promoted participatory democracy, crusaded for civil rights and protested against the Vietnam war. As a result, COINTELPRO became the largest known program in domestic surveillance when it was exposed in 1971 by 8 activists. Between 1965 and 1975, the FBI opened more than 500,000 intelligence files on more than one million Americans, according to a Congressional report. 

While Chomsky reveals the “character and scale of [the FBI’s] enterprise” (l. 12), he also suggests that it took place in a broader framework of executive abuse.

As paragraph 5 reveals, the 1970s was a decade of executive abuse and “imperial presidency” (a phrase coined by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. in 1973), threatening freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble (First Amendment).

The Watergate scandal, to which COINTELPRO is compared, is a significant example. When Nixon was elected in 1968, his administration had to face a strongly Democratic Congress. As a result, many of its legislative initiatives were blocked. In this situation, Nixon was determined in 1972 to win a second term and to sweep Republican majorities into both houses of the Congress. This led to excesses that brought his downfall. In order to neutralize Nixon’s political enemies, John Mitchell, the director of the Committee to Re-elect the President (ironically called CREEP) accepted a plan designed by a former CIA agent (Gordon Liddy) to wiretap the phones of the Democratic National Committee at his headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, DC. The wiretapping attempt took place on the evening of June 16, 1972 and ended with the arrest of those involved. The matter was played down by the Republicans and Nixon was reelected with 61% of the popular vote. But two journalists of the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein progressively discovered that the White House was involved in the case. As a consequence, on August 9, 1974, Nixon became the first American President ever to resign. 

But the Watergate scandal was not the only case of executive abuse. The Vietnam War also led to excesses. In the late 60s and in the 70s, there was a reluctance by people in the US to intervene with military force abroad. The result was that the government continued its attempt to expand power abroad, but covertly. In Vietnam, both Johnson and Nixon intensified the war while promising Americans that they were putting an end to it. Johnson’s lie was revealed in the Pentagon Papers published in 1971. Moreover, in 1975, Americans learned that the CIA was involved in the 1973 military coup that overthrew the democratically elected Salvador Allende government in Chile. Thousands were murdered, “disappeared” and tortured by the new regime headed by President Augusto Pinochet. With the help of the US, democracy in Chile was replaced by a long and tragic period of dictatorship. 

The impact of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and other affairs on American life was important. Many questioned the centralization of power in the American political system and cited the “imperial presidency” as the cause of recent abuses. Others lost faith in the presidency. A 1974 survey showed that trust in the presidency had declined by 50% in a two-year period. Johnson’s lie about American involvement in Vietnam and the Watergate scandal contributed to the disillusionment with politics and to the steady decrease in political participation. 

Using the cover of maintaining “internal security”, the FBI investigated, harassed and infiltrated many progressive groups in the 50s, 60s and 70s, jeopardizing the democratic basis of the US nation. 

But Chomsky’s denunciation reveals that a counterpower also developed at the time. In fact, as a result of the abusive atmosphere that climaxed in the 70s, in 1974 and 1975, Congressional committees investigated the FBI and the CIA, revealing government crimes at home and abroad, such as the involvement of the CIA in the 1973 coup against Allende.