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A Threat of the First Magnitude: FBI Counterintelligence & Infiltration From the Communist Party to the Revolutionary Union - 1962-1974
The untold story of the FBI informants who penetrated the upper reaches of organizations such as the Communist Party, USA, the Black Panther Party, the Revolutionary Union and other groups labeled threats to the internal security of the United States.
Sometime in the late fall/early winter of 1962, a document began circulating among members of the Communist Party USA based in the Chicago area, titled “Whither the Party of Lenin.” It was signed “The Ad Hoc Committee for Scientific Socialist Line.” This was not the work of factionally inclined CP comrades, but rather something springing from the counter-intelligence imagination of the FBI.
A Threat of the First Magnitude tells the story of the FBI’s fake Maoist organization and the informants they used to penetrate the highest levels of the Communist Party USA, the Black Panther Party, the Revolutionary Union and other groups labelled threats to the internal security of the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.
As once again the FBI is thrust into the spotlight of US politics, A Threat of a First Magnitude offers a view of the historic inner-workings of the Bureau’s counterintelligence operations — from generating "fake news" and the utilization of "sensitive intelligence methods" to the handling of "reliable sources" — that matches or exceeds the sophistication of any contenders.
Sometime in the late fall/early winter of 1962, a document began circulating among members of the Communist Party USA based in the Chicago area, titled “Whither the Party of Lenin.” It was signed “The Ad Hoc Committee for Scientific Socialist Line.” This was not the work of factionally inclined CP comrades, but rather something springing from the counter-intelligence imagination of the FBI.
A Threat of the First Magnitude tells the story of the FBI’s fake Maoist organization and the informants they used to penetrate the highest levels of the Communist Party USA, the Black Panther Party, the Revolutionary Union and other groups labelled threats to the internal security of the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.
As once again the FBI is thrust into the spotlight of US politics, A Threat of a First Magnitude offers a view of the historic inner-workings of the Bureau’s counterintelligence operations — from generating "fake news" and the utilization of "sensitive intelligence methods" to the handling of "reliable sources" — that matches or exceeds the sophistication of any contenders.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published January 16, 2018
25 people are currently reading
945 people want to read
About the author
Aaron J. Leonard
7 books63 followersAaron J. Leonard is a writer and historian. His research interests focus on twentieth century US history, particularly Sixties history and the interplay between radicalism and governmental repression. He has a B.A. in History, from New York University. He lives in Los Angeles
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 10, 2018
the slow, partial opening of some fbi records from the 60s and 70s relating to counterintelligence programs directed at different leftist organizations has given the authors of 'heavy radicals' an opportunity to reconstruct the history of the deployment of one of the most important and least-understood tools in the fbi playbook: the long-term confidential informant.
the most amusing part of the book is the history of the Ad-Hoc Committee for a Scientific Socialist Line, a completely fabricated pro-China group inside of the CPUSA. fbi agent herbert k. stallings wrote most of the flawless marxist-leninist rhetoric appearing in the ad-hoc committee's bulletins for over a decade, in addition to meeting personally with disaffected CPUSA members and trying to recruit them. the main lesson here is that fluency in the jargon guarantees basically nothing about someone politics.
the more sinister part of the book deals with the fbi's operations inside the revolutionary union and later, the revolutionary communist party. they appear to have had at least two highly placed sources, one of which was don wright, and another of which who was very close to leibel bergman. the two sources, especially wright, not only reported on the ru's activities but made significant decisions as a part of the central leadership of the organization. the scuttling of the RU's attempted merger with puerto rican, black and chinese-american revolutionary organizations seems to have been significantly aided by wright's work. the lessons here are a little more subtle. wright was only able to do damage that added to political mistakes already present in the RU's line, like their 'class' reductionism.
the other aspect of the fbi's penetration of the RU involved, of course, proposing absurdly violent shit or supporting others who were proposing it. in one case two CI's, who would later go on to form an evangelical ministry, were put in charge of providing weapons for the bay area branch of the RU. the couple got this assignment mainly because the husband was able to dress up like an authentic white worker and adopt a macho pose.
unlike electronic surveillance, which has changed drastically since the early 70s, the art of inserting and maintaining actual human assets into an organization is still crucial and has changed relatively little since the pre-Church Committee fbi's days. one thing that emerges from all the stories told in this book is the immense resources, patience, discipline and cleverness of the fbi. they frankly outwitted most of the organizations and individuals they were directed to spy on or disrupt, and in some cases, like don wright's or richard aoki's, their interference was never uncovered until it was decades too late.
the most amusing part of the book is the history of the Ad-Hoc Committee for a Scientific Socialist Line, a completely fabricated pro-China group inside of the CPUSA. fbi agent herbert k. stallings wrote most of the flawless marxist-leninist rhetoric appearing in the ad-hoc committee's bulletins for over a decade, in addition to meeting personally with disaffected CPUSA members and trying to recruit them. the main lesson here is that fluency in the jargon guarantees basically nothing about someone politics.
the more sinister part of the book deals with the fbi's operations inside the revolutionary union and later, the revolutionary communist party. they appear to have had at least two highly placed sources, one of which was don wright, and another of which who was very close to leibel bergman. the two sources, especially wright, not only reported on the ru's activities but made significant decisions as a part of the central leadership of the organization. the scuttling of the RU's attempted merger with puerto rican, black and chinese-american revolutionary organizations seems to have been significantly aided by wright's work. the lessons here are a little more subtle. wright was only able to do damage that added to political mistakes already present in the RU's line, like their 'class' reductionism.
the other aspect of the fbi's penetration of the RU involved, of course, proposing absurdly violent shit or supporting others who were proposing it. in one case two CI's, who would later go on to form an evangelical ministry, were put in charge of providing weapons for the bay area branch of the RU. the couple got this assignment mainly because the husband was able to dress up like an authentic white worker and adopt a macho pose.
unlike electronic surveillance, which has changed drastically since the early 70s, the art of inserting and maintaining actual human assets into an organization is still crucial and has changed relatively little since the pre-Church Committee fbi's days. one thing that emerges from all the stories told in this book is the immense resources, patience, discipline and cleverness of the fbi. they frankly outwitted most of the organizations and individuals they were directed to spy on or disrupt, and in some cases, like don wright's or richard aoki's, their interference was never uncovered until it was decades too late.
May 29, 2025
The Ad-Hoc Committee for a Marxist Leninist Line was a sudden faction of the CPUSA that appeared in 1962, in the midst of the emerging Sino-Soviet Split, which arose from a number of theoretical (and geopolitical) disagreements between the PRC and the USSR. They argued from a fresh-faced Maoist line against the revisionism of the current leadership of the CPUSA, publishing polemic bulletins as a secret underground faction against the CPUSA line and urging for a new party true to Marxism-Leninism.
The only problem is, the Ad-Hoc Committee was a fabrication of the FBI’s COINTELPRO.
The immediate reaction of the CPUSA to their first published bulletin was not to assume that the FBI had fabricated it however, but that internal factionalists had written it with outside help, likely the other big socialist party, the Socialist Workers Party (according to them).
This is just one example of many that unfold in this stunning book of the ways that factional ideology was used to splinter, disrupt, and otherwise “neutralize” emerging vanguard parties in the heat of the Second Reconstruction era.
The book mostly traces the history of the FBI’s use of informants on the left, though the Ad-Hoc Committee plays a supporting role throughout, fanning flames of ideological difference wherever it can. Every major revolutionary communist or socialist party had informants in it. The CPUSA was particularly infested, especially as informants stuck around when membership dwindled in the face of the McCarthyite Red Scare and Kruschchev’s Secret Speech (which, for the record, the FBI had hands on within a day because of one of their star CPUSA informants, Morris Childs). But no party was pure of this. The BPP, SWP, whoever, were susceptible. One particular Black Panther informant, not covered in the book, (George Sams) was likely responsible for ordering the murder of another he accused of being an informant, which he then used to have Bobby Seale arrested (New Haven chapter, see Black Against Empire, Bloom).
In super-particular the book focuses on the evolution of the Revolutionary Union, a communist party pre-formation born in the aftermath of the disintegration of the SWP and CPUSA alike (then the two largest socialist parties). Unfortunately, it seems that the RU was compromised from the jump— an informant was a founding member. This was only the beginning of RU’s problems, however. They suffered from many attempts at factional discord from various informant-members from the get-go and these attempts had real-life lasting reverberations (to this day) in the attempt to build the revolutionary movement. The RU itself split in a key moment, as well as most of the groupings that were involved with them in building towards a multinational revolutionary party.
What lessons are to be learned from this?
An obvious one seems that outra-factional polemicism is a dead end. What I mean by that is one party writing some big takedown of another burgeoning party (or group etc). The RU itself suffered from this kind of choice as they early-on published a series of takedowns on the SWP which was fostered and encouraged by an informant-member (and which was basically a final nail in the coffin for the SWP—which, to be clear, the FBI considered a threat). In the RU this move was hotly debated; but the FBI factionalists’ arguments won out. Further animosity amongst the left was the result. In American revolutionary politics, the AHC was more or less the founding of this type of movement, at least in the Second Reconstruction era. And it was a counterintelligence fabrication!! But yet, it sowed the seeds for every factional alignment in the US thereafter. Every online ultra-leftist pulling water for anything close to a US State Department line should take heed. Frankly, any openly “we must build ANOTHER NEW PURE PARTY!!!” polemicists also should. Many of the leftists in this country who were and are part of truly revolutionary movements were and are led into blind alleys and splintering and movement-dwindling because of the kinds of ideologically “pure” ideas the FBI injected into the movement with their “underground” polemics or otherwise informant personalities with sway. (If you need a directive statement: join the party that’s most put together in your area. Though I would avoid the DSA.)
A case in point, Richard Aoki. Famed Asian American radical activist in the relevant era, so famed that in 2009 he had a glowing book and documentary produced about him. He died, and then the author here discovered via FOIA that he had been an informant for essentially the entire time the FBI had paid him to be (roughly the mid 50s to the late 70s). Richard Aoki was an early friend of the Black Panther Party, who gave them some of their first guns from his personal stores and encouraged them to embrace a Maoist line on the Marxist side of things. I fully embrace the BPP as the vanguard method to learn from the most in the US, but this is worth noting.
Don Wright was an abrasive (by all accounts) ultra left black nationalist who rose to the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Union. Despite his wreckist and consistently divisive behaviors, he retained a place of power in the RU because of his identity. To them he was an integral piece for the RU to tie together various groups (such as the Young Lords and the Revolutionary Black Workers Union ) in their attempt to form a new multinational Communist Party. In spite of his regularly alienating behavior. Why do we mention Don? Because, of course, as this author discovered… he was working with the FBI the entire time.
It’s undeniable that the FBI merely took existing factional disputes (on a global level) and applied them in counterintelligence operations domestically. And for this reason, it should be studied globally along with the Sino-Soviet split to learn how to correct our movements and to prevent future similar mistakes. But the key takeaway should apply most firmly to the Imperial Core, where these kinds of things were most applied and most effectively used to destroy the revolutionary movement. The takeaway isn’t to become more paranoid and alienating and alienated about bringing people into the party, but to be more aware of what kind of behaviors are truly typical of counterintelligence and how to nip these things in the bud.
The only problem is, the Ad-Hoc Committee was a fabrication of the FBI’s COINTELPRO.
The immediate reaction of the CPUSA to their first published bulletin was not to assume that the FBI had fabricated it however, but that internal factionalists had written it with outside help, likely the other big socialist party, the Socialist Workers Party (according to them).
This is just one example of many that unfold in this stunning book of the ways that factional ideology was used to splinter, disrupt, and otherwise “neutralize” emerging vanguard parties in the heat of the Second Reconstruction era.
The book mostly traces the history of the FBI’s use of informants on the left, though the Ad-Hoc Committee plays a supporting role throughout, fanning flames of ideological difference wherever it can. Every major revolutionary communist or socialist party had informants in it. The CPUSA was particularly infested, especially as informants stuck around when membership dwindled in the face of the McCarthyite Red Scare and Kruschchev’s Secret Speech (which, for the record, the FBI had hands on within a day because of one of their star CPUSA informants, Morris Childs). But no party was pure of this. The BPP, SWP, whoever, were susceptible. One particular Black Panther informant, not covered in the book, (George Sams) was likely responsible for ordering the murder of another he accused of being an informant, which he then used to have Bobby Seale arrested (New Haven chapter, see Black Against Empire, Bloom).
In super-particular the book focuses on the evolution of the Revolutionary Union, a communist party pre-formation born in the aftermath of the disintegration of the SWP and CPUSA alike (then the two largest socialist parties). Unfortunately, it seems that the RU was compromised from the jump— an informant was a founding member. This was only the beginning of RU’s problems, however. They suffered from many attempts at factional discord from various informant-members from the get-go and these attempts had real-life lasting reverberations (to this day) in the attempt to build the revolutionary movement. The RU itself split in a key moment, as well as most of the groupings that were involved with them in building towards a multinational revolutionary party.
What lessons are to be learned from this?
An obvious one seems that outra-factional polemicism is a dead end. What I mean by that is one party writing some big takedown of another burgeoning party (or group etc). The RU itself suffered from this kind of choice as they early-on published a series of takedowns on the SWP which was fostered and encouraged by an informant-member (and which was basically a final nail in the coffin for the SWP—which, to be clear, the FBI considered a threat). In the RU this move was hotly debated; but the FBI factionalists’ arguments won out. Further animosity amongst the left was the result. In American revolutionary politics, the AHC was more or less the founding of this type of movement, at least in the Second Reconstruction era. And it was a counterintelligence fabrication!! But yet, it sowed the seeds for every factional alignment in the US thereafter. Every online ultra-leftist pulling water for anything close to a US State Department line should take heed. Frankly, any openly “we must build ANOTHER NEW PURE PARTY!!!” polemicists also should. Many of the leftists in this country who were and are part of truly revolutionary movements were and are led into blind alleys and splintering and movement-dwindling because of the kinds of ideologically “pure” ideas the FBI injected into the movement with their “underground” polemics or otherwise informant personalities with sway. (If you need a directive statement: join the party that’s most put together in your area. Though I would avoid the DSA.)
A case in point, Richard Aoki. Famed Asian American radical activist in the relevant era, so famed that in 2009 he had a glowing book and documentary produced about him. He died, and then the author here discovered via FOIA that he had been an informant for essentially the entire time the FBI had paid him to be (roughly the mid 50s to the late 70s). Richard Aoki was an early friend of the Black Panther Party, who gave them some of their first guns from his personal stores and encouraged them to embrace a Maoist line on the Marxist side of things. I fully embrace the BPP as the vanguard method to learn from the most in the US, but this is worth noting.
Don Wright was an abrasive (by all accounts) ultra left black nationalist who rose to the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Union. Despite his wreckist and consistently divisive behaviors, he retained a place of power in the RU because of his identity. To them he was an integral piece for the RU to tie together various groups (such as the Young Lords and the Revolutionary Black Workers Union ) in their attempt to form a new multinational Communist Party. In spite of his regularly alienating behavior. Why do we mention Don? Because, of course, as this author discovered… he was working with the FBI the entire time.
It’s undeniable that the FBI merely took existing factional disputes (on a global level) and applied them in counterintelligence operations domestically. And for this reason, it should be studied globally along with the Sino-Soviet split to learn how to correct our movements and to prevent future similar mistakes. But the key takeaway should apply most firmly to the Imperial Core, where these kinds of things were most applied and most effectively used to destroy the revolutionary movement. The takeaway isn’t to become more paranoid and alienating and alienated about bringing people into the party, but to be more aware of what kind of behaviors are truly typical of counterintelligence and how to nip these things in the bud.
March 24, 2018
If you dreamed of radical, revolutionary change in the late Sixties and early Seventies, then reading this book will expose the efforts of the FBI to insure that change did not happen.
If you currently hope that the FBI investigation will bring down Trump and rescue what passes for democracy in the US, then this book will make it clear which interests the FBI serves.
This is a fascinating book, I was particularly fascinated with the story of Don Wright and his disruptive role as a FBI informer within the Revolutionary Union.
I read every page including footnotes and index.
If you currently hope that the FBI investigation will bring down Trump and rescue what passes for democracy in the US, then this book will make it clear which interests the FBI serves.
This is a fascinating book, I was particularly fascinated with the story of Don Wright and his disruptive role as a FBI informer within the Revolutionary Union.
I read every page including footnotes and index.
January 29, 2018
First of all, it's fascinating and gripping as hell, sort of a prequel to "Heavy Radicals" but also a slight shift in focus: less interested in rehabilitating the political project of the New Communist movement, more interested in digging into the actual practice of FBI infiltration. The research methods are unimpeachable, and the revelations are fairly shocking and hard to argue with: damning evidence that Richard Aoki was an FBI informant, and conclusive evidence that the highest leadership levels of the Revolutionary Union were infiltrated.
Leonard has gotten better as a writer- even as the politics have gotten worse. There's a snide, dismissive attitude towards the real political issues that were in the air, and an almost romantic fascination with power of the FBI.
Leonard has gotten better as a writer- even as the politics have gotten worse. There's a snide, dismissive attitude towards the real political issues that were in the air, and an almost romantic fascination with power of the FBI.
December 23, 2023
Pretty short read, only 180ish pages. An important read for modern left activists in the USA to understand the tactics used to undermine movements, especially as groups like the DSA and others continue to grow.
October 16, 2018
Very thorough and well-reported history of the FBI's infiltration and disruption of US Communist movements in the 60s and 70s (particularly those following Maoism). The authors have done the legwork to present organizers of today with a valuable lesson: federal informants can cause major rifts that can bog down even the most flexible movements in sectarian bickering.
June 2, 2021
A good (if quite short) companion piece to the various histories of FBI attacks on revolutionary groups, specifically focusing on the use of informants within the New Communist Movement. Excellent use of primary source research.
October 27, 2025
Super fascinating look into counterintelligence programs/informants inside of left wing movements in the early 70s. Stories of Don wright and Richard aoki are mind boggling
July 15, 2024
Chaotic and very (and I mean VERY) poorly written, this is a purely amateur hour effort to deal with an eminently worthy subject. As it is, though, it does no one proud.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews