Uncertain Threats: The FBI, the New Left, and Cold War Intelligence

Synopsis

What if the FBI&’s surveillance of the New Left wasn&’t only about repression and cynical self-interest? This book revisits one of the most controversial episodes of the Cold War: the FBI&’s counterintelligence investigations into the activist leaders of SDS and other radical groups. While scholars have rightly emphasized political overreach, constitutional violations, and the Bureau&’s institutional self-interest, newly declassified documents reveal that it also possessed a stream of intelligence — often fragmentary, sometimes credible — that pointed to international ties many scholars have overlooked or discounted. Through close historical analysis of this evolving intelligence picture, the book complicates the dominant narrative of Hoover-era surveillance. It shows how the FBI and other agencies perceived the New Left&’s developing connections to Cuba, North Vietnam, and other Communist powers, and why they came to see those ties as potential counterintelligence threats. Rather than defending the Bureau&’s conduct, the book seeks to understand it on its own terms, emphasizing how counterintelligence agencies operate amid deep uncertainty and limited oversight. In doing so, it offers a new perspective on the internationalization of the New Left, the nature of foreign influence, and the machinery of Cold War security. A work of historical and analytical recovery, it challenges prevailing narratives in U.S. political history, intelligence studies, and the historiography of the 1960s.

Copyright:

2025

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9783031980879

Related ISBNs:

9783031980862

Publisher:

Springer Nature Switzerland

Date of Addition:

10/31/25

Copyrighted By:

The Editor

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Politics and Government

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.