Bradlee in 2010. Photograph by Flickr user Miguel Ariel Contreras Drake-McLaughlin.
The FBI decided against recruiting Ben Bradlee as a double agent in 1961 “because of certain aspects of subject’s background,” according to the bureau’s files on the legendary Washington Post editor released Tuesday. Bradlee’s FBI file, made public seven months after his death, show that while he was never officially dinged for associating with subversive organizations or materials, his relationship with the FBI was frosty for decades.
“He has been proven to be a colossal liar,” FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover scribbled on a 1965 agency memorandum about Bradlee’s appointment as the Post’s deputy managing editor. Hoover was apparently displeased with a profile Bradlee had commissioned as Newsweek’s Washington bureau chief and, after the story ran, wrote that he would “trust him as much as I would trust a rattlesnake.”
While still with Newsweek, Bradlee was considered for inclusion in the FBI’s Development of Selected Contacts program, which eyed him as a potential source within the Washington Post Company. (The program was ended in 1974.) It wasn’t the first time the FBI snoped around Bradlee, though. The bureau checked him out in 1951 when he applied for a job with Voice of America, and had extensive documentation about his Navy service and friendship with the Kennedy family.
Still, Bradlee didn’t come away with an entirely clean record. The FBI took note of his association with known “liberal” Walter Lippman and his attempts to break up a local newspaper monopoly in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Bradlee and the FBI tried to patch things up after Hoover’s death, though. A 1973 memo about a potential meeting between Bradlee and then-Director Clarence Kelley quotes the Post editor as saying “I think we are paranoid about you and the FBI is paranoid about us.”
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
FBI: Ben Bradlee Did Not Have “Any Potential as a Double Agent”
The FBI decided against recruiting Ben Bradlee as a double agent in 1961 “because of certain aspects of subject’s background,” according to the bureau’s files on the legendary Washington Post editor released Tuesday. Bradlee’s FBI file, made public seven months after his death, show that while he was never officially dinged for associating with subversive organizations or materials, his relationship with the FBI was frosty for decades.
“He has been proven to be a colossal liar,” FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover scribbled on a 1965 agency memorandum about Bradlee’s appointment as the Post’s deputy managing editor. Hoover was apparently displeased with a profile Bradlee had commissioned as Newsweek’s Washington bureau chief and, after the story ran, wrote that he would “trust him as much as I would trust a rattlesnake.”
While still with Newsweek, Bradlee was considered for inclusion in the FBI’s Development of Selected Contacts program, which eyed him as a potential source within the Washington Post Company. (The program was ended in 1974.) It wasn’t the first time the FBI snoped around Bradlee, though. The bureau checked him out in 1951 when he applied for a job with Voice of America, and had extensive documentation about his Navy service and friendship with the Kennedy family.
Still, Bradlee didn’t come away with an entirely clean record. The FBI took note of his association with known “liberal” Walter Lippman and his attempts to break up a local newspaper monopoly in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Bradlee and the FBI tried to patch things up after Hoover’s death, though. A 1973 memo about a potential meeting between Bradlee and then-Director Clarence Kelley quotes the Post editor as saying “I think we are paranoid about you and the FBI is paranoid about us.”
Read Bradlee’s full FBI File:
Benjamin Bradlee FBI File
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
Most Popular in News & Politics
What It Felt Like for a Virginia Marching Band to Win Metallica’s Contest
Meet the 2023 Washingtonians of the Year
What’s IN and OUT in DC Restaurant Trends for 2024
Introducing 8 of DC’s Most Stylish
Washingtonian Magazine
May 2024: Great Getaways
View IssueSubscribe
Follow Us on Social
Follow Us on Social
Related
13 Major Concerts and Music Festivals in the DC Area This Spring
Mary Timony on Her Emotional New Album, “Untame the Tiger”
The Beatles in DC: A New Exhibit in Maryland Looks Back on Early Beatlemania
Northern Virginia High School Wins Metallica’s Marching Band Competition
More from News & Politics
Former Fiola GM Convicted of Murder Is Now in a Netflix Docuseries
These 5 DC Traffic Cams Are Issuing the Most Tickets Right Now
Farewell to Crystal City Underground, the DC Area’s Strangest Mall
Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People of 2024
Inside the Urgent Effort to Preserve Black Newspapers
Maryland Has Renamed an Invasive Fish. Will It Matter?
Meet the 2024 Washington Women in Journalism Award Winners
In the Doghouse: Kristi Noem and 5 Other Canine Political Scandals