In a third category, Nearing was further classified as a native born citizen. Other classifications were a naturalized citizen, and an alien.
Seventeen months later, if Hoover followed orders, Nearing and thousands of other Americans should have been removed from such a list.
On July 16, 1943, while World War II was in full swing, then-U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle sent a memorandum to Hoover and Hugh B. Cox, Assistant Attorney General, disbanding the FBI’s effort. Characterizing it as “inherently unreliable” as well as “impractical, unwise, and dangerous,” Biddle wrote that “the adoption of this classification was a mistake that should be rectified for the future.”
This is the text of that letter:
I refer to Mr. L. M. C. Smith’s memorandum to me dated June 28, 1943, which reviews the history, development, and meaning of the Special Case work and of the danger classifications that were made as a part of that work.
After full re-consideration of these individual danger classifications, I am satisfied that they serve no useful purpose. The detention of alien enemies is being dealt with under the procedures established by the Alien Enemy Control Unit. The Special Case procedure has been found to be valueless and is not used in that connection. There is no statutory authorization or other present justification for keeping a “custodial detention” list of citizens. The Department fulfills its proper functions by investigating the activities of persons who may have violated the law. It is not aided in this work by classifying persons as to dangerousness.
Apart from these general considerations, it is now clear to me that this classification system is inherently unreliable. The evidence used for the purpose of making the classifications was inadequate; the standards applied to the evidence for the purpose of making the classifications were defective; and finally, the notion that it is possible to make a valid determination as to how dangerous a person is in the abstract and without reference to time, environment, and other relevant circumstances, is impractical, unwise, and dangerous.
For the foregoing reasons I am satisfied that the adoption of this classification system was a mistake that should be rectified for the future. Accordingly, I direct that the classifications heretofore made should not be regarded as classifications of dangerousness or as a determination of fact in any sense. In the future, they should not be used for any purpose whatsoever. Questions raised as to the status or activities of a particular person should be disposed of by consideration of all available information, but without reference to any classification heretofore made.
A copy of this memorandum should be placed in the file of each person who has hitherto been given a classification. In addition, each card upon which a classification appears should be stamped with the following language:
“THIS CLASSIFICATION IS UNRELIABLE. IT IS HEREBY CANCELLED, AND SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A DETERMINATION OF DANGEROUSNESS OR OF ANY OTHER FACT. (SEE MEMORANDUM OF JULY 16, 1943 FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL TO HUGH B. COX AND J. EDGAR HOOVER).”
Two years later, on June 26, 1945, Attorney General Biddle’s tenure ended. Tom Clark succeeded him a month later. That was an intense summer. To put it in context, the German surrender was in May 1945, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese surrender would follow in August of that same year.
So there was a reason Hoover had to seek re-authorization to compile such a list. Until AG Clark’s granting of the request in 1948, Biddle’s 1943 suspension of the program stood.
There is evidence that the list survived not only the five-year hiatus in the 1940s, but also Hoover’s death in 1972. In the early 1970s, fast approaching 90 years of age, Nearing (who along with his wife Helen were my neighbors in Harborside, Maine) was still on a government watch list.
Here is the recommendation for his removal from the list, followed by a hand-written, unsigned note on the same page countermanding that suggestion:
SCOTT NEARING, previously carried as Priority III, is being recommended for deletion in view of his age, born 1883, and the fact that there has not been any appreciable subversive activity on his part within the last five years.
(Bold handwritten note on same page)
ADDENDUM: Place in ADEX 4. Due to subject’s intensive subversive background, including sponsorship of AIMS in 1964, and status of featured speaker in 5/68 at Washington Ethical Society Auditorium, when subject strongly criticized U.S. Vietnam policy and supported Red China and Soviet Union, it is felt subject would offer assistance to revolutionary elements in a national crisis. Submit next periodic communication 4/18/73.
