That being said, the FBI was key in breaking the various Nazi cyphers which did help the war effort. Rarely however, was this information able to be used to thwart evil-doers. It was disheartening to read that FDR allowed Hoover to accumulate vast amounts of information on suspected Nazis and Communists obtained via illegal wiretaps and black bag break-ins. Unfortunately, Hoover and the FBI were so obsessed with chasing the "Reds" that little was done to stop this and revelations were made after Harding's death in 1923. History records the various scandals such as the Teapot Dome bribes of $300,000 taken by the Secretary of the Interior from oil companies among others.
Sad to note that some things never change. He was just a slob - a slack, good-natured man with an unfortunate disposition to surround himself with intimates of questionable character." (P. Alice Roosevelt Longworth: "Harding was not a bad man. The corrupt president Harding and his Attorney General, Harry Dougherty, exemplified many of the same characteristics of our current administration and Hoover thrived in this environment.
In 1920, in freeing 13 prisoners held in abysmal conditions on Deer Island having been arrested with highly questionable techniques, Judge George Anderson said, "A mob is a mob whether made up of government officials acting under instructions from the Department of Justice, or criminals, loafers or the vicious classes." (P. There are some great, timeless quotes which bear relevance today. The book spends a lot of time discussing the career and legacy of J Edgar Hoover dispelling myths (most evidence discounts the commonly held belief that he was a closeted homosexual) and describing in detail his relentless pursuit of power in his personal fight against Communism which colored most if not all of his tenure. Tim Weiner's Enemies: A History of the FBI is an interesting book about the FBI's straddling the line between legal and illegal pursuit of criminals.
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