William C. Sullivan - The Break With Hoover

The Break With Hoover

Sullivan claimed Hoover's concerns about the American Communist Party were overemphasized when compared to violations of Federal civil rights laws in the segregated south. This friction worsened as Sullivan made his opinions public. Whereas many bureau insiders considered Sullivan the logical successor to Hoover, on October 1, 1971. Sullivan's FBI career ended abruptly after Hoover fired him for insubordination and suspected disloyalty, and ordered the lock on his door changed and his nameplate removed.

Sullivan then became even more vocal about Hoover's controversial counterintelligence programs, collectively labeled COINTELPRO, including some that he himself had conceived and administered. These were intended to spread confusion and dissension among extremist political groups in the U.S., ranging from the Communist Party (CPUSA) on the left to the Ku Klux Klan on the far right. In 1975, he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, "Never once did I hear anybody, including myself raise the question, is this course of action which we have agreed upon lawful, is it legal, is it ethical or moral?"