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12 Year Old Takes on J. Edgar Hoover ~ A Third Man - Washington Post

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mzmolly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 06:09 PM
Original message
12 Year Old Takes on J. Edgar Hoover ~ A Third Man - Washington Post

I grew up revering two men: J. Edgar Hoover and my dad. I was elated when Dad joined the FBI in 1962; it was as if the Yankees had hired him to pitch. My father had been job-hopping, having worked at five newspapers over the previous eight years. While my parents were pleased with the job security and benefits of the FBI, I had ecstatic visions of my father as a commie-fighting, crime-busting G-man. John Dillinger, the Karpis-Barker gang and "Machine Gun" Kelly were as familiar to me as Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. "The FBI Story" was the first book longer than a comic book I ever read. When I was 7 years old, I couldn't name the president, but I knew who the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was. I still have letters my father wrote during his training at the FBI Academy in Quantico: "Daddy is working and studying very hard to become a good FBI agent. I will be home in August and I will show you my badge and my gun." What could be cooler?

Through my boyhood eyes, my father personified the FBI motto of Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. Six feet tall with looks like Cary Grant, he made the dark suit, white shirt, subdued tie and homburg hat of FBI fame appear stylish. As my father's new-agent training report noted, "This man makes a very substantial initial impression." Reticent, he wielded the driest of wits. He signed my fifth-grade autograph book: "To my son, Eddie; may his father lead a long and prosperous life."

As for Hoover, his career turned out to be stunningly inconsistent. His leadership alternated between brilliant and boneheaded; his tremendous accomplishments sometimes have been overshadowed by his idiosyncrasies. Forty years ago, my family got a taste of the best and worst that Hoover had to offer.

MORE AT > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/07/AR2009080702150.html?sub=AR">WASHINGTONPOST.COM

* Pictured below from left to right - J.Edgar Hoover, http://www.comm.umn.edu/faculty/profile.php?UID=schiappa">Anthony Edward Schiappa Jr. - at age 12 (the author of the story) and Anthony Edward Schiappa Sr. *





I enjoyed this story and think others will too. ;)
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Libertas1776 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 07:00 PM
Response to Original message
1. People
fail to realize what kind of scary, enormous power Hoover wielded over this country for over five decades, on all kinds of people from your average schmo to the President of the United States.

Really great story. Thanks for posting this :hi:
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mzmolly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 08:38 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. You're welcome.
Thanks for reading it. :)

:hi:
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mzmolly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 08:39 PM
Response to Original message
3. Thanks for the recs guys!
:D
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RedCloud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 09:04 PM
Response to Original message
4. Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI
"According to its analysis of the documents in this FBI office, 1 percent were devoted to organized crime, mostly gambling; 30 percent were "manuals, routine forms, and similar procedural matter"; 40 percent were devoted to political surveillance and the like, including two cases involving right-wing groups, ten concerning immigrants, and over 200 on left or liberal groups. Another 14 percent of the documents concerned draft resistance and "leaving the military without government permission." The remainder concerned bank robberies, murder, rape, and interstate theft."<1>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%27_Commission_to_Investigate_the_FBI
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NYC_SKP Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 09:07 PM
Response to Original message
5. LOL @ "To my son, Eddie; may his father lead a long and prosperous life."
Good sense of humor!

:kick:
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CommProf Donating Member (2 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 10:11 PM
Response to Original message
6. Thanks for posting the article!
Didn't expect to look at DU and see my 12-year-old self looking back. :)
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dalaigh lllama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 10:42 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. Wow! You've been here for almost three years and this is your first post?
Amazing!

That's quite the story. Hoover was one scary dude.
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CommProf Donating Member (2 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 10:48 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. yep
To tell the truth, I forgot I had this account until tonight! Most of the time, I just listen & learn. :)
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dalaigh lllama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 11:26 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. Glad this brought you out of your lurker-only status.
And glad the tale had a happy ending for your dad. :-)
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mzmolly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 11:21 PM
Response to Reply #6
11. Glad you stopped in Professor.
:hi:
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nashville_brook Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-23-09 09:34 AM
Response to Reply #6
15. what an amazingly cool story! i felt like i was there -- could see the institutional/drab 60s office
and, such a privileged view of the way system worked.
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Schema Thing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 10:13 PM
Response to Original message
7. My father interviewed with, and was turned down by
J. Edgar Hoover.
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mzmolly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-23-09 12:12 AM
Response to Reply #7
14. That's a shame.
I hope he did well in spite?
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Schema Thing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-23-09 01:32 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. financially? not so much
we could have used a government retirement.... but then again, had he been accepted into the FBI, it's unlikely (read: would-not-have-happened) I would have been born, as his life trajectory would have been so different than it was.

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GhostofRichardRorty Donating Member (43 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 10:24 PM
Response to Original message
8. vintage photos
Thanks for posting the story.
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tomm2thumbs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-22-09 11:51 PM
Response to Original message
13. thoroughly enjoyed that story - thanks for the link & pics

great stuff K&R
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MinM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-23-09 05:16 PM
Response to Original message
17. Frontline: J. Edgar Hoover

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x310947


:kick: & R
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sasquatch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-23-09 05:41 PM
Response to Original message
18. Funny
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