Nation: J. Edgar Hoover Speaks Out With Vigor

For 46 years, under eight Presidents, J. Edgar Hoover has presided over the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He will be 76 on New Year's Day, but the prickly views on everything from his former bosses to the "jackals of the press," the frank prejudices, the devotion to the bureau pour forth with undiminished vigor. On the wall of his office is a mounted sailfish whose staring eyes are as steely as the chiefs own. There Hoover discussed a variety of topics with TIME Correspondent Dean Fischer. Excerpts from the interview:

ON REDUCING CRIME: First, there must be improvements in the training and salaries of law-enforcement officers. Second, there must be court improvements. Many judges don't sit as long hours as they should; they come in at ten o'clock, take a two-hour lunch break, and go home early in the evening. Third, there must be improvements in the penitentiaries. Some people come out worse than they went in. I have been accused of opposing parole and probation. I'm heartily in favor of them. But I am vigorously opposed to the abuse of parole and probation. The bleeding hearts on parole boards ought to be a little tougher. [In the matter of preventive detention] people who commit serious felonies—rape, murder, hijacking and kidnaping—should be incarcerated until they're tried, but it's absolutely wrong that they should have to wait seven or eight months before their trials.

ON EXTREMIST GROUPS: Bombings are the most serious threat to society because of the activities of the Black Panthers, the S.D.S. and the Weathermen. You take last year, when 23 police officers were killed and 188 injured by [black] racial extremists. The Black Panthers are directly associated with guerrillas in Jordan and Algiers. They pose the worst threat from the standpoint of violence.

ON PROTECTING THE PRESIDENT: We Cooperate with the Secret Service on presidential trips abroad. You never have to bother about a President being shot by Puerto Ricans or Mexicans. They don't shoot very straight. But if they come at you with a knife, beware.

ON THE FBI's IMAGE: We have recruited 50% of our [1,000] new agents from the officer corps in Viet Nam. You get a man who has been in command of men and he has to use good judgment. They all have to be above average in personal appearance. You won't find long hair or sideburns a la Namath here. There are no hippies. The public has an image of what an FBI agent should look like.

ON ROBERT KENNEDY: My differences with Bobby were very unfortunate. His father was one of my closest friends. He wanted me to lower our qualifications and to hire more Negro agents ... I said, "Bobby, that's not going to be done as long as I'm director of this bureau." He said, "I don't think you're being cooperative." And I said, "Why don't you get a new director?" I went over to see President Johnson and he told me to "stick to your guns." But there was no disagreement about organized crime.