(1895 – 1972) Director of the FBI from its creation as the Bureau of Investigation in 1924 until his death in 1972. Hoover was responsible for placing the FBI at the heart of American government by undertaking a rigorous process of professionalization, bureaucratization and highly publicized investigations of communists, gangsters and alleged spies.

Following the war, Hoover extended his range and power beyond these areas into more controversial definitions of anti-Americanism, orchestrating a smear campaign against Martin Luther King, Jr. and using undercover agents to infiltrate the Black Panthers. It is also widely believed that he had gathered damaging information on most of the postwar presidents, which inclined them to keep him on at the Bureau. After his death, more questions arose about the power he had amassed at the FBI and his personal life, including his crossdressing proclivities (in stark contrast to the image of the straight-laced G-man).