Historical Archive
1971–1972
1971–1972
Franklin Firing
Recruiting
War Research & Industry
April 21 Strike, etc.
May Actions
1971–1972
Franklin Firing: FBI COINTELPRO Documents

It could probably be conservatively stated that Franklin, in his position of Associate Professor of English at Stanford University, represents one of the most militant radical extremists on American campuses, and his background has been well documented publicly.

Federal Bureau of Investigation
March 14, 1969

To my knowledge, the trove of FBI documents pertaining to H. Bruce Franklin that was released by the Colorado ACLU in October, 1976 has heretofore not been made available on the World Wide Web. So I have sorted and scanned Pacific Studies Center's collection. The descriptions here are for identification purposes only.

However, the original documents, many of which have had substantial text redacted, are instructive. Either the FBI in the latter years of J. Edgar Hoover’s tenure as Director was incredibly incompetent and/or the documents released by the ACLU represent a small fraction of the material collected by the FBI.

One didn’t have to be a member of any of the organizations that Bruce led to know his views. Indeed, Bruce’s perspective on Stanford, the Vietnam War, and American business were shared by hundreds, and eventually thousands of local activists who did not share his particular approach to fundamental change.

Obviously, the emergence of digital communications and data storage has transformed the way the FBI and similar agencies collect information, but I am guessing that today they still have limited understanding of the movements that they monitor.

Lenny Siegel

September 14, 1966
Air Force background
March 9, 1967
Background and napalm protests
March 9, 1967
Napalm connection
March 24, 1967
Re: passport and photo
May 17, 1968
The Franklins are Granma subscribers.
August 7, 1968
Surveillance
December 31, 1968
Request for discrediting material
January 6, 1969
Newspaper and Free University references
January 23, 1969
H. Bruce Franklin, "Who Should Run the Universities?" at AEI
January 28, 1969
Materials about American Enterprise Institute January, 1969 Rational Debate Series
January 30, 1969
"Who Should Run the Universities?" rebuttal by John A. Howard
January 30, 1969
"Who Should Run the Universities?" rebuttal by H. Bruce Franklin
February 5, 1969
Summary of January 30 "Who Should Run the Universities?" debate
February 19, 1969
Furnishing AEI material to "cooperative news media source"
May 6, 1969
Collection of reports about Revolutionary Union, Stanford movement, etc.
May 14, 1969
The FBI proposes an anonymous pamphlet about Franklin
May 20, 1969
2 Examiner articles to be distributed to Trustees, alumni, and parents
May 26, 1969
Redacted identification of witnesses
July 10, 1969
Reference to AEI book, "Who Should Run the Universities?"
July 28, 1969
Cover letter for transmittal of AEI book
September 8, 1969
Letter to Franklin designed to cause a rift in Revolutionary Union
September 30, 1969
Report on student demonstration in support of PDM Steel strike
October 14, 1969
Suggestion that FBI create rumor that Franklin is an informant
October 31, 1969
FBI SF rejects rumor suggestion; YAF Stanford "circular"
August 11, 1970
Proposal to use Franklin pen-name to increase antagonism between RU and PL
August 25, 1970
Proposal for fake Chinese government representative to approach Franklin
September 25, 1970
August 11 proposal is "pending"
October 22, 1970
Because of "split," disruptive proposal not implemented
November, 1970
Proposed fake letter from Franklin to James Burnham
November 18, 1970
"Request for FBI Reports for Internal Revenue Service"
December 24, 1970
"Franklin has broken with the RU"
October 8, 1971
Mention of Franklin's forthcoming book, From the Movement towards Revolution
October 19, 1971
Cover note for Franklin's opening statement to Stanford Advisory Board
November 17, 1971
Request to investigate Advisory Board witnesses
December 14, 1971
Request for background in view of Franklin's planned travel to France
January 11, 1972
Cover note for From Movement towards Revolution
March 14, 1972
Cover note for Franklin photo for Smith Act evaluation
April 25, 1972
Franklin did NOT speak at New York demonstration, April 22, 1972
December 18, 1972
Franklin's November, 1972 visit to Portland, Oregon
April 10, 1973
Cover note for flyer advertising April 11 speech at University of Oregon
April 30, 1973
Report on April 11, 1973 speech at University of Oregon
May 16, 1974
Update on Franklin, based on news articles
September 5, 1974
Franklin hired as lecturer at Wesleyan University, CT
September 11, 1974
Cover note for news article about Franklin's position at Wesleyan
September 23, 1974
Cover note for information supplied to New Haven, CT FBI office
September 24, 1974
Cover note regarding information about Jane Morgan Franklin
April 26, 1976
Air Force letter about information in its Special Investigations files