The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power




Midday on WNYC show

Summary: Investigative reporter Seth Rosenfeld traces the FBI’s secret involvement with three iconic figures who clashed at Berkeley during the 1960s: the ambitious neophyte politician Ronald Reagan, the fierce but fragile radical Mario Savio, and the liberal university president Clark Kerr. Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power looks at the campus counterculture and reveals how the FBI’s covert operations—led by Reagan’s friend J. Edgar Hoover—helped ignite an era of protest, undermine the Democrats, and benefit Reagan personally and politically.