Washington, D.C.
The FBI tailed John Kerry for more than a year in the early 1970s, as part of its monitoring of anti-war activists, the Los Angeles Times revealed this week. Agents discovered “nothing whatsoever to link the subject with any violent activity,” concluded the extensive file on the future presidential candidate. The agency began following Kerry in 1971, after he testified before Congress as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Agents assigned to Kerry eventually decided that he was using VVAW for his own ends. “Kerry is an opportunist with personal political aspirations,” said one report. The Kerry campaign this week said that having aroused the suspicions of Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover was “a badge of honor,” though the candidate was surprised at the extent of the surveillance. “I’m offended by the intrusiveness of it,” he said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
What should you be stockpiling for 'World War Three'?In the Spotlight Britons advised to prepare after the EU tells its citizens to have an emergency kit just in case
-
Carnivore diet: why people are eating only meatThe Explainer 'Meatfluencers' are taking social media by storm but experts warn meat-only diets have health consequences
-
Scientists want to fight malaria by poisoning mosquitoes with human bloodUnder the radar Drugging the bugs
