Nation: J. Edgar Hoover Speaks Out With Vigor

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ON HIS 1964 MEETING WITH KING: I got a wire from the Reverend Doctor King in New York. He was getting ready to get the Nobel Prize—he was the last one in the world who should ever have received it. He wired asking to see me.* I held him in complete contempt because of the things he said and because of his conduct. First I felt I shouldn't see him, but then I thought he might become a martyr if I didn't. King was very suave and smooth. He sat right there where you're sitting and said he never criticized the FBI. I said, "Mr. King"—I never called him reverend —"stop right there. You're lying." He then pulled out a press release that he said he intended to give to the press. I said, "Don't show it to me or read it to me." I couldn't understand how he could have prepared a press release even before we met. Then he asked if I'd go out to have a photograph taken with him. I said I certainly would mind. And I said, "If you ever say anything that's a lie again, I'll brand you a liar again." Strange to say, he never attacked the Bureau again for as long as he lived.

ON THE FBI's CAMPUS ACTIVITIES: A lot has been said in the press about the FBI swarming onto the campuses. The FBI is not on any campus. A Princeton professor blamed me for having agents on the campus, and he even called me a bastard. I wrote him that the FBI never goes on a campus except to investigate bombings of federally funded buildings, and while I do not indulge in vulgarity, I called him a liar. It's an absolute lie. Of course, most students think we shouldn't go on unless they invite us. They can have as many demonstrations, sit-ins, lay-ins as they want, and we will never look into it. I think students have a perfect right to dissent and to express their views through proper channels. But they ought not to resolve their differences by throwing bricks and bottles on the streets.

ON HIS HEALTH AND HABITS: I told the President I'd remain as long as my physical condition permitted. We have employees in the bureau who are in their 80s. I've always been against retiring a man by age; the longer a man is with us, the more valuable he becomes. To keep fit, I walk several blocks almost daily to the office. [His other recreation consists of TV watching and playing the horses at nearby tracks.] I live on the edge of Rock Creek Park, and I used to walk there. I can't do it now because of [crime] conditions in this city. I've been very observant of my weight. I had to cut off 20 pounds, and I had to give up everything I like, like chocolate cream pie. My two dogs are among the smartest and most affectionate dogs I've ever seen. Anybody would think twice before they'd commit murder because of the way those dogs bark. They're great company to me. The less I think of some people, the more I think of my dogs. I can leave in the morning and be in a bad mood, and when I come home at night they'll jump all over me.