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Reckless and wrong though such conduct was, Hoover never cooperated with the White House, as Acting Director Gray has, in feeding information involving a serious investigation to officials under suspicion.
Ill-Temper. In fact Hoover spurned some orders from Presidents. He chaired a committee under Nixon in 1970, for example, that explored new tactics to investigate espionage, racial unrest, campus disorders and antiwar radicals. He was the lone dissenter when representatives of the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency urged that agents be allowed to expand surveillance to break in or otherwise "surreptitiously" enter the residences of suspects and examine personal papers or other documents. The White House approved the tactic and ordered its use, but Hoover continued to protest—and the order was finally abandoned at the suggestion of Attorney General John Mitchell.
As Hoover grew older and more irascible, high officials of the Nixon Administration knew that his displays of ill-temper were hurting the bureau, and they considered firing him. Mitchell and two of his top associates at Justice, Richard Kleindienst and Robert Mardian, discussed a search for someone to replace Hoover. Often mentioned was Supreme Court Justice Byron White, who has proved to be highly independent, although the FBI job does not necessarily require anyone of that lofty status. There could be some merit in de-emphasizing the FBI role with a lesser, but nevertheless unassailable choice. After Hoover died last May, quick action was taken to find an acting director.
Kleindienst and Mardian discussed possible successors, concentrating on three veteran FBI men and William C. Sullivan, former No. 3 man at the FBI. He had been forced out of the bureau by Hoover in 197 1 because he had disagreed too often with Hoover's ideas (TIME, Oct. 25, 1971), including Hoover's obsession with Communist subversion. The four possibilities were suggested to John Mitchell, who balked at the selection of anyone from within the FBI because he might prove to be just as independent of the White House as Hoover had been. Clearly the White House wanted to get control of the FBI. It was Mitchell who suggested Gray instead of Sullivan—and Nixon promptly approved that choice. Gray thus became heavily indebted to Mitchell.
Nixon took another ten months to decide that Gray should be made the permanent director. First he explained, reasonably enough, that he wanted to keep the matter out of the 1972 political campaign. Yet as late as last month, the appointment was still a matter of sharp controversy within the White House. Some" presidential aides, including John Ehrlichman, felt that Gray was vulnerable to attack and had hurt the FBI because he had made too many political speeches during the fall campaign. The name of Sullivan was again raised by the antiGray staffers as a possible permanent FBI chief.
A key intercession was made at this point by Presidential Counsel Dean. He asked the advice of Gray's No. 2 man at the FBI, veteran Agent W. Mark Felt. A longtime foe of Sullivan, Felt said that Sullivan's appointment would throw the bureau into chaos. Dean accepted that judgment at face value, strongly advised the selection of Gray —and Nixon nominated Gray on Feb. 17. Thus Gray became