Chronicle of Higher Education - web daily - June 10, 2002
Documents Link FBI to '60s Efforts to Ruin Career of Clark Kerr, Newspaper Reports
The San Francisco Chronicle reported over the weekend on more than 200,000 pages of Federal Bureau of Investigation documents showing that the bureau had engaged in unlawful activities at the University of California for years, including a campaign to ruin the career of Clark Kerr, who was the university's president from 1958 to 1967.
The newspaper obtained more than 200,000 pages of documents after a 17-year legal fight over their release. According to the paper, the FBI schemed with the head of the CIA to harass students, faculty members, and members of the university's Board of Regents. The bureau also sent the White House derogatory allegations about Mr. Kerr, even though the FBI knew they were false.
The newspaper also reports that the FBI developed a close relationship with then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, who had made controlling campus unrest a major part of his 1966 campaign for governor. The bureau secretly gave Governor Reagan's administration information about protesters.
The FBI has declined to comment on the files, and the office of Ronald Reagan referred questions to Edwin Meese III, who served as Governor Reagan's chief of staff. Mr. Meese told the newspaper that Mr. Reagan did have a longstanding relationship with the bureau, but said he knew of no special political help it had given to Reagan.
The articles and several of the FBI memos can be seen at the newspaper's Web site.