ESPIONAGE: Almost None

FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover reported for the year ending last June:

¶ 28 convictions for espionage or failure of foreign agents to register.

¶ 29 convictions for sedition.

¶ 90 convictions for sabotage. (“There was no evidence of foreign-directed acts of destruction. In almost all instances the sabotage was committed by individuals because of maliciousness, spite or as a prank.”)

¶ 5,027 arrests of enemy aliens (total since Pearl Harbor: 14,432).

The report summed up: The effectiveness of [the FBI’s] work cannot be gauged by the number of individuals convicted. . . . The only test is the absence of sabotage and the futility of the efforts of enemy espionage agents.”