President Nixon Approves Huston Plan for Violations of Americans’ Rights
President Richard Nixon on this day approved the Huston Plan, a secret program that called for massive violations of civil liberties to combat what Nixon believed was a threat to law and order in the U.S. from anti-war activists and other radicals.
Following the massive anti-war demonstrations in May 1970, which were marked by the fatal shooting of four demonstrators at Kent State University by Ohio National Guard troops on May 4, 1970, President Richard Nixon and his top aides believed that law and order was about to collapse in the U.S. Consequently, on June 5, 1970, he established a special Interdepartmental Committee on Intelligence, directed by White House aide Tom Charles Huston, to develop a plan to disrupt radical activities.
The Huston Plan, as it became known, called for illegal activities such as wiretapping, burglaries, and the kidnapping and secret deporting of radicals. After initially approving the plan on this day, Nixon abruptly rescinded it on July 27, 1974.
Although it was officially cancelled, the Huston Plan provided a model for subsequent abuses by the Nixon administration, including the so-called “Plumbers” unit in the White House (see September 9, 1971 for its notorious burglary in the Pentagon Papers case),and the Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972, which touched off the Watergate Scandal and led to President Nixon’s resignation on August 9, 1974.
Learn about the notorious Huston Plan here
Read the Church Committee report on the Huston Plan (pp. 921–93): http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/html/ChurchB3_0479a.htm
Learn more about Watergate: Fred Emery, Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon (1994)
Read the best biography of the F.B.I.’s J. Edgar Hoover: Curt Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (1991)