School, i want to invite all of you to what i think is an extraordinary special event. Tonight, we have the honor of rosenfeld here. He went on to enjoy a long career as an Investigative Reporter at the San Francisco examiner and chronicle. I stayed in touch with him all those years. I have known him for at least 30 years. For all that time, seth was involved in his own personal of whatr the question was really going on here at berkeley during the 1960s. Book,sult is this subversives, the fbis war on student radicals and reagans rise to power. It is an extraordinary book. I was waiting for years to rita. Its an extraordinary book. , it. Read it. This book is based on 250,000 documents. Some of which you will see tonight. If youve never seen a fbi document, you might be shocked. You might want to close your eyes when you see it. Handwriting i J Edgar Hoover himself. Looking out into the audience, lets do a poll. How many people remember J Edgar Hoover . Good. We dont have to do a lot of explaining. We are going to try to have a conversation and go through some of this material for about 45 minutes. If we have time, we will show you a short video that is produced by the center for investigative reporting. I realized that this book is very heavy. Long, based on the documents. I surprisingly easy reach. Page 505to wait until to get a glance at the daunting process that seth went there when he was trying to put this together. There is a narrative about that. To give you an idea of his accomplishment here, you can take a look at the reviews. They range from Publishers Weekly that says, narrative nonfiction at its best. Is 200 50,000 documents. In case you have forgotten or you are too young to know, the 1960s of it template for todays divisiveness. He wrote how the abyss formed. His book is crucial history. It is also a warning, said the Christian Science monitor. The wall street journal said, even though they are prepared to here all kinds of things, work provides unusual insight into what has happened in america. Hopefully we will have time at the end to reflect on what i think myself is going on. We have a lot of ground to cover. We will do about 45 minutes of discussion with equal amount of time for questions. There are microphones in the audience. I do ask two things. That you identify yourself. When u. S. Questions, no speeches, police. Lease. Seth will be signing books when we are done. Let me start with a question. Give us a sense about what this book is all about. Thank you for that wonderful introduction. [applause] this book is a history of the 1960s. It is a secret history, or i should say a history of the fbis secret activities concerning the university of california during the cold war. It tells the story by examining the fbis activities in regard marioee main characters, kerr, who turned out to be in a great dispute with mario savio and other students, and Ronald Reagan, who was running for governor at this time and made campus protest a major issue in his campaign. Both mariodds with savio and clark kerr. You can see that behind the scenes of many wellknown events , the fbi was deeply involved with these people and with the university of california, and they were secretly tampering with history, trying to influence Public Policy behind the scenes. How did you start this . What got you going . I remember you as a young undergraduate living next door to me on firstrate. Innocent. Those were the days. I first got interested in this when i was a student here at berkeley in the late 1970s. I was reporter for the daily californian. My editor asked me if i was interested in taking a look at some fbi documents that they had gotten under the freedom of information act. I jumped at the chance. I knew the fbi had been deeply involved in domestic surveillance elsewhere as a result of hearings before the u. S. Congress. A lot of information had come out. Aknew that berkeley had been hotbed of student protesting the 1960s. I was very intrigued to know behinde fbi was up to the scenes at berkeley. I looked at these documents and consulted with various people about them, and wrote several stories for the newspaper. In researching those stories, i realized that there was much more there. I can see that there were many more fbi files that had yet to be released. Even before i had finished those stories, i submitted a much asked banded freedom of information act request that sought information on more than 100 different organizations and individuals, very specifically requesting certain categories of records. I thought i would get these records in one year or so and finish of the project and move on to the next story, but i had no idea that i was embarking on a 30 year legal odyssey that would lead me to bring five lawsuits against the fbi and forced the bureau to release more than 300,000 pages of records, even though the fbis been more than 1 million in taxpayer funds trying to suppress those records. Where does the story began in the fbi files . In terms of their interest in berkeley and what they ultimately did . The fbi had been interested in berkeley and student protests at berkeley dating from before world war ii, but where i started the book is right after world war ii, when the fbi is investigating soviet espionage in berkeley at the university of california. Soviet intelligence agencies were trying to get Nuclear Secrets through members of becoming his party who lived in the bay area. J edgar hoover ordered a massive investigation into this. This was an effort to find out who the soviet spies were. What you see in the documents is that in the years following that, the fbi veered from this very Important NationalSecurity Mission and instead came to focus on professors and students ,ho were involved in dissent and of the fbi would be on gathering information and trying to get the professors they deem to radical fired from the university of california. But they did using wiretaps. They did pick up people in oakland, for instance, who were conspiring to get secrets. Yes, this is true. The fbi did find evidence of soviet espionage in berkeley. That was a very Important NationalSecurity Mission. One that the fbi property should be doing, but the files make it abundantly clear that the fbi veered from that mission and came to focus on people involved in First Amendment activities and lawful dissent. Rated their investigation they did their investigation. They used informers and informants. To make it clear to everybody as we go through this and the documents, what is the difference between an informer and informant . The term evolved. And informant would be anyone who provides information to the fbi. Informant would be anybody who had a formal relationship with the fbi, who was probably , who was somebody that the fbi believed to be under their control and direction in gathering information on political organizations. The most startling part of , to me anyway, having written about Ronald Reagan and covered Ronald Reagan , was to see documents that say Ronald Reagan is an informer. How did that start . How did you determine that . That begin in hollywood right after world war ii. One night in 1946, fbi agents knocked on Ronald Reagan door and told him that there were communists and some of the liberal groups he was involved in. ,s reagan wrote in his memoir these fbi agents opened my eyes to a good many things. Documents show is what reagan only hinted at, that reagan proceeded to become an active informer in hollywood. He provided information about fellow actors and about his opponents in the Screen Actors Guild. In subsequent years, J Edgar Hoover repaid those favors by giving reagan personal and political help, even though it was beyond the fbi statistics and to do so. Jurisdiction to do so. Ut reagan and the fbi out there . Readout no. I will summarize it for you. This is a document from august 4, 1947. It is a report on the fbis investigation into alleged communism in hollywood. One of the areas the fbi was looking at was alleged communism infiltration of labor unions in hollywood. Of course, one of the main unions is the Screen Actors Guild you can see here guild. Here is the Screen Actors Guild. I will fastforward to that part of it. Thatthis document says is on april 10, 1947, two fbi agents interviewed Ronald Reagan and his wife jane wyman at their home in hollywood. Reagan at this time was president of the Screen Actors Guild. Jane wyman had been active in the guild. Says that reagan and jane wyman had requested that they be agents ind by bureau order that they might furnish information regarding the activities of some members of the guild whom they suspected were carrying out communist party work. The document goes on to say that Ronald Reagan advised of the Screen Actors Guild had 12 officers, Background Information about the guild, and he goes on to name names. Among the people he named was a wellknown actress, karen morley, another actress, and he claimed that on all questions of policy to confront the guild, they follow the communist party line. Reagan stated that they do not appear to be particularly close, but whenever an occasion arises necessitating the appointment of some member to a committee or invariably two nominated or supported the same individual. Reagan and wyman go on to list several more actors and actresses, including alexander knox, hume cronin, dorothy tree, and selena royle. Reagan also mentions larry parks. This document struck me for several reasons. Reagan had said several times, including in his memoir, that he never pointed the finger at anybody. What you can see here is quiet clearly that he secretly did that. Documents also in which Ronald Reagan names people, sometimes on the scanty us to of evidence. I believe that this information shows a different side of Ronald Reagan, different from the easygoing ocular, president who takes a kindly view of people. You see reagan here naming people who are his opponents in the guild, and he is benefiting personally by bringing his opponents to the attention of the fbi. Whats also significant is that he offers no real evidence. He is just saying that they seem to follow the communist party line. Of jd he became a favorite edgar hoovers question marquis he did. He did. Many actors and naturalists did not have any idea that the president of this guild was making their Information Available to the fbi. Initially J Edgar Hoover was suspicious of Ronald Reagan because he had been involved in some liberal groups. The more reagan cooperated with the fbis investigation, the more hoover came to trust him. , reagan andocuments the fbi have what they call a close and cooperative relationship. In later years, hoover repaid these favors. In one case, in 1960, they are not getting paid money . No, there is no evidence that he was being paid money or under control by the fbi. The document suggests that reagan was not operating for pecuniary reasons, but for other motives. He did get some favors. The motors favors are interesting. Reagan and jane one and were concerned about their eldest daughter, maureen. She had gone to live in washington dc preaching was 19 years old. They had heard that she was living with an older married policeman. Rather than call her up and ask her about this, they turned to friend. Through a mutual hoover personally authorize an investigation of maureen reagans romantic life, even though he acknowledged in fbi directors records that this was beyond their jurisdiction. One fbi agent posed as an insurance of men and interviewed neighbors. Another one interviewed the cleaning lady at maureen reagans rooming house. A third agent talk to some other police officers. They confirmed that she was in fact living with this older married policeman. They confidentially furnish the information to the reagans, who agreed to keep it a secret. Its unclear how they use this information and whether it help the relationship with her daughter in any way. [laughter] in 1965,r incident reagan received of him is on the eve becoming governor. This is when reagan is deciding to run for governor. Helpn gets more personal and political help from J Edgar Hoover. This time concerning his adopted some, Michael Reagan. The fbi had been investigating a crime family, and agents in phoenix, where the leader had a home, were conducting surveillance and saw that Michael Reagan was hanging out on of the mafia leader. To interviewnted Ronald Reagan about this. They thought he might have heard some useful information from his sun that could help them in their investigation, which was a high priority. But J Edgar Hoover interceded. He refused to let the agents interview Ronald Reagan. Instead, he ordered that they warned him that his sun michael with thes hanging out sun of the mafia leader. Thisd reagans reaction to was summarized in one report. I can share that. Lets see. You cant make this up. [laughter] this document is what the fbi calls a summary memorandum. It actually summarizes other fbi documents. This is the serial number of the original document, and then what the summary him that. In my lawsuit under the freedom of information act, the fbi claim the original documents had been destroyed. This is all we have. It says, is summarizing this letter, the letter states that Ronald Reagan on advised by special agent february 1, 1965 concerning his. Ons association he was most appreciative and stated that he realized that such an association and actions on the part of his sun might well jeopardize any political aspirations you might have. He expressed concern for his sons behavior and reputation. Reagan stated that he would telephone his sun and instruct him to disassociate himself gracefully and in a manner which would cause no trouble or speculation. He stated that the bureaus courtesy in this matter would be kept absolutely confidential. , reagan commented that he realized it would be improper to express his appreciation in writing and requested that the special agent conferred the great admiration he has for the director and the bureau, and to express his thanks for the bureaus cooperation. Document is now almost 20 years after reagan first became an informer in hollywood. It shows the evolution of reagans relationship with the fbi. Here you have an example of Ronald Reagan, who by this time in his life has defined himself politically as somebody who believes that people should not be overly reliant on government. That taxpayer dollars are being wasted on entitlements. But he has no hesitation taking this kind of personal help regarding his sun and his daughter. I should add that going forward, reagans relationship with the , and when closer reagan became governor in late 1966, one of the first things he did after taking office was to from the fbi and request a briefing about student protests at berkeley, particularly about mario savio and the Free Speech Movement, and clark kerr, the president of the university, and liberal members of the board of regents. Hoover personally authorize that briefing. Together of coming the new governor of california and the director of the fbi. From your book, it appears they targeted, if you will, clark kerr, the president of the university. Why clark kerr . Why would he be so fixated on what had become the largest Public University in the world . J edgar hoover had long been concerned about berkeley, dating to the days of the investigation into atomic espionage here. He had been concerned about radical professors. He had been concerned about professors who refused to sign a loyalty oath in the late 1940s and 1950s. That is not the loyalty of you have designed to work your. No. This was a loyalty oath that was adopted for only university employees. The print the professors who denied it, were sued over. Hey won reinstatement this particular loyalty oath was declared as constitutional. But hoover consider the reluctance to sign the oath as further evidence that they were potential subversives. And clark kerr . Let me find one of the document first. There we go. This document is dated october 16, 19 58th. It is just after clark or had become president of the statewide university of california. It sheds light on hoovers view of clark kerr. Dr. Clark kerr has recently been formally inaugurated as president of the university of california and as allnsequence, the head of universities. Dr. Kerr has always given the impression that he is a liberal in the educational field. That he is not in sympathy with loyalty oath by stating university officials. And that he is also not in complete accord with the fact that varies branches of the state and local government must conduct security investigations of individuals on various campuses. Especially with those individuals take part in classified contract spirit with this background in mind, the following is being brought to the attention of the bureau. This is in the event that the bureau may receive some inquiry recurring concerning dr. Kerr, who at best is a highly controversial figure in california education. So, that is 19 58th. That is 19 58th. Is 1958. Concerns a visited the campus of somebody named frank been aon, who had housing official, i housing official, in los angeles and had been called to testify before the House Unamerican Activities Committee and had refused. Wilkinson was going to come to the campus and give a speech. Certain people