COINTELPRO, ANATOL RAPOPORT, AND THE CHURCH COMMITTEE: BALANCING SECURITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

In 1975, the Senate designated a Committee, generally referred to as the Church Committee, to investigate the unlawful actions of Intelligence Community member agencies such as the FBI and the CIA. During the preceding decade, the FBI had conducted several programs that infringed on American citizens’ rights, particularly in their Counterintelligence Program [COINTELPRO]. Although much research has been done into the effect that COINTELPRO had on the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the academics who were targeted due to their opposition to the Vietnam War have largely gone unnoticed. This thesis investigates the effect on those academics through the case study of the experiences of Anatol Rapoport. It goes on to trace the influence of the Church Community through time to show how their recommendations have been eroded and to illustrate their influence on life today.