The Huston Plan was a 43-page report and outline of proposed security operations put together by

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 180 ...

aide Tom Charles Huston in 1970.America Sinking through a Watergate
It came to light during the 1973

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hearings headed by Senator

Sam Ervin Samuel James Ervin Jr. (September 27, 1896April 23, 1985) was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A native of Morganton, he liked to call himself a " country lawyer", and often ...

(a Democrat from North Carolina). The impetus for this report was President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

's desire for coordination of domestic intelligence on purported '

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political%20ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically in ...

radicals' and the counterculture-era anti-war movement in general. Huston had been assigned as White House liaison to the Interagency Committee on Intelligence (ICI), a group chaired by

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation ...

, then

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

(FBI) Director. Huston worked closely with William C. Sullivan, Hoover's assistant, in drawing up the options listed in what eventually became the document known as the Huston Plan. The plan called for domestic

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, illegal electronic

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...

, and opening the mail of domestic "radicals". At one time, it also called for camps in Western states where anti-war protesters would be detained. In mid-July 1970, Nixon ratified the proposals, and they were submitted as a document to the directors of the FBI,

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(CIA),

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(DIA), and the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collect ...

(NSA). Only Hoover objected to the plan and gained the support of then

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John Mitchell to pressure Nixon to rescind the plan.{{cite book, last1=White, first1=Theodore H., title=Breach of faith; the fall of Richard Nixon, date=1975, publisher=Dell, isbn=9781501142734, page=135 Despite the ultimate decision by the President to revoke the Huston Plan, several of its provisions were implemented. After the Huston Plan, the FBI lowered the age of campus informants, thereby expanding surveillance of American college students as sought through the plan. In 1971, the FBI reinstated its use of

mail cover Mail cover is a law enforcement investigative technique in which the United States Postal Service, acting at the request of a law enforcement agency, records information from the outside of letters and parcels before they are delivered and then se ...

s and continued to submit names to the CIA mail program. As details of the Huston Plan unfolded during the Watergate Hearings, it came to be seen as part of what Attorney General Mitchell referred to as " White House horrors". This included the Plumbers Unit, the proposed fire-bombing of the

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, the 1971 burglary of the office of the psychiatrist of

Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is an American political activist, and former United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, Ellsberg precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the '' Pen ...

, the creation of a White House enemies list, and the use of the

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(IRS) to punish those deemed to be enemies. The Huston Plan was also investigated by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Senator Frank Church in 1976, into activities of the CIA and abuses of domestic intelligence gathering.

References

External links

Huston Plan: Hearings before the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities
Church Committee, U.S. Senate, Sept. 23-25, 1975.

* ttps://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/noplacetohide/pyle.html Interview with Army whistleblower Chris Pyle

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Surveillance scandals Watergate scandal Covert operations