Feb. 22, 1962 - J. Edgar Hoover on crime and communism

Feb. 22, 1962 - J. Edgar Hoover said today that “there can be no compromise with the Communists” and that “the sooner every American faces this fact, the stronger our position will be.” The director of the F.B.I. asserted: “America has no place for those timid souls who urge ‘appeasement at any price’ nor those who chant the ‘better Red than dead’ slogan.” Mr. Hoover received the Freedom Foundation’s highest award, the George Washington Medal, as the American who made the most outstanding contribution to freedom in 1961. In his talk at Valley Forge, Pa., Mr. Hoover declared: “The forces of communism pervert our Bill of Rights. They hide behind a protective cloak of constitutional privilege while acting to destroy our freedoms. Our freedoms were not won by defeatists — fair-weather patriots who crawl into hiding at the first sign of danger,” he said. “Nor does our strength stem from the ‘pseudo liberals’ of the extreme left nor the ‘pseudo patriots’ of the extreme right. We should not minimize the threat and challenge of communism for one moment, but we must guard against the hysterical and irrational approach,” he said.