Going Nuclear. Stephen Hart
with a frown, his eyes squinting, his brow wrinkled. “But I’m ready to do whatever the Bureau needs.”
“Yes, fine, well, I’m sure you are.” Bono opened the file that sat on his desk but only glanced at it, apparently already familiar with its contents. He looked back at Vic. “I think you’re going to find covert operations a little different from what you have been doing up to now. I hope you’re ready for it. From what I’ve read here, you’ve spent the last ten years or so working on white-collar crimes—embezzlement, things like that.”
“That’s right.”
“Well, that’s going to seem pretty tame compared to what you’re getting into now.”
“How’s that?” Vic asked, feeling annoyed by Bono’s dismissive attitude toward the work he had been doing.
“Let me start by saying, you are now joining a highly sensitive program, a very secret program, intended, among other things, to negate, if not eliminate, the Black Panther Party.”
“Really? I didn’t know that covert operations was that focused. I mean, going after the Black Panthers specifically.” Vic felt even more put off by the direction the conversation was taking.
“We are. I don’t know if you’re aware of it or not, but J. Edgar Hoover has identified the Black Panthers as the greatest internal threat to this country. The greatest internal threat. And these days, with all the chaos and revolutionary ideas floating around, that’s saying one hell of a lot. In the past year, a group of us have met with Mr. Hoover personally about this several times, several times, and there’s no doubt about how he sees this thing. None.”
“But do the Panthers really pose that much of a threat, I mean to the government and everything?” Or, Vic thought, is this just an opportunity for J. Edgar to rack up some easy political points? Knock down a straw man while white-collar crimes continue to flourish.
“Absolutely” Bono answered. “The Panthers don’t believe in our institutions or way of life or anything else. They’re deeply committed to the overthrow of this government.”
“But what can they do?”
“They can stir up blacks all across this country, especially the poor blacks in ghettos, and start an armed revolution leading to a real split in the government, with them in charge of the black faction, of course. That’s why they have to be stopped now before they get started, before they get a chance to do any significant damage, and before they get a chance to join forces with these campus radicals that are becoming more and more prevalent.”
“How do we do that?” Vic asked, feeling the essence of his career slipping away.
“Well, your role in all this will include keeping a close eye on any potential interaction between the Panthers and local campus radicals. Regular reports on both groups will be funneled to you, and if the situation calls for it, you will be enlisted to get involved directly.”
“What kind of reports will I be seeing?”
“Good question. Good question. We already have a number of operations in place concerning the Panthers. You’ll be getting updates on those activities regularly along with updates on student dissidence.”
“What kind of operations concerning the Panthers?”
“Well, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Blackstone Rangers, for example, but they’re a local black gang that’s heavily armed and into violence. We believe they could be a serious threat if they ever joined forces with the Panthers. So we’re taking steps to prevent this from happening. We’re pitting them against each other every chance we get, trying to get them to wipe each other out if we can.”
“How are you doing that?”
“We use fake letters and phone calls and newspaper stories to make each side think the other side is looking for trouble. And it seems to be working. There have been several confrontations recently and an actual shooting. We know, because we have informants in both groups.”
“What do you mean, fake letters?”
“Oh, we’ve written open letters to the Panthers in local newspapers, for example, putting down their leaders, accusing them of just being in it for themselves and not really caring about black people, things like that. And then we made it look like the letters came from the Rangers. And vice versa, of course.”
“I see.” Vic turned away and inhaled through his nose a couple of times, as if he were trying to breathe in some clean air. The activities Bono described seemed creepy to him, unsavory—tactics that he associated more with dirty politics and subversive activities, not the kind of assignment he had envisioned when he joined the Bureau. At this point, it was clear that he would have much preferred continuing with his old assignment, going after slick white-collar criminals who knew full well that what they were doing was illegal but thought they could get away with it because they were a little smarter than the law. This new assignment seemed to be about harassing misguided black kids. True, many of them had contempt for authority, but most could probably straighten out in time on their own if they weren’t saddled first with a criminal record. Vic cleared his throat. “This is different from the type of work I have been doing, very different.”
“I know it is. But as I said, a big part of your job will be to do everything you can to help undermine and discredit these militant black groups, especially the Panthers. We have to continue going after their leaders, their newspapers, their supporters, everything. I hope you have the stomach for this kind of thing.”
“I’m sure I can do what I have to do,” Vic replied.
“I hope so. I know these are different times. And some of our older agents have had trouble adapting to the new demands placed on them.”
“I’ll try to adjust to whatever the situation calls for.”
“Good. As I said, of particular concern to us these days is the potential for collaboration between the Panthers and campus radicals. For the most part, these so-called radicals are just college kids blowing off steam. They’ve had it pretty easy growing up, but now they find themselves in college, facing academic pressure, probably for the first time, with the very real possibility of military service looming in their future.”
“Academic pressure?”
“Oh, sure, sure. Most of these college students don’t graduate. They find the coursework difficult, and they don’t want to put in the effort to succeed. Most of them probably don’t even belong in college in the first place. That’s one of the fallacies we live with today.” Bono tapped his pen on the desk. “Everyone should go to college. So for the ones having trouble, life suddenly seems hard, doesn’t seem fair. Life in high school was easy, but now it’s not. They want to complain. They want to rebel. And who better to direct their frustration at than what they see as their oppressive government waging an unpopular war? So, we have to make sure these kids don’t fall in with the kind of people who could do some real damage, people like the Panthers.” An uneasy pause followed. “So tell me,” Bono said abruptly, “how did you happen to join the Bureau?”
Here we go again, Vic thought. “Well, I got my law degree in the late thirties while the Depression was still going strong. It was almost impossible to make a living as an inexperienced lawyer in those days, so I took a job in the post office to get by. Then World War II came, and I enlisted in the Army and served in the OSS. After that, a few of us were offered jobs with the CIA, but I didn’t want an overseas assignment. So they suggested that I apply for a job with the Bureau instead, which sounded great. Interesting work, security, a sense of accomplishment; all of the things I was looking for.”
“Are you happy with your choice?” Bono frowned as he asked the question.
“Sure. Working for the Bureau has done a lot for me. I really appreciate the opportunity I was given.” What is he getting at? Vic wondered.
“But now the scene has changed,” Bono said. “In addition to mobsters and