AHC: President Hoover - President J. Edgar Hoover, that is.

Like the tin says, your challenge is to have infamous FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover become President of the United States at some point before his death in 1972.
 
Like the tin says, your challenge is to have infamous FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover become President of the United States at some point before his death in 1972.

Kings come, kings go, good advisors tend to stay. J.E. Hoover didn't want to office, it provided a barrier between him and the public that he seemed to relish. What about him being the basis or author for an early 'House of Cards' type series?
 

cpip

Gone Fishin'
Does he have to have been FBI Director still? Because otherwise, I did this one for a previous AHC, where we swapped Herbert and J. Edgar Hoover's career paths.

It's easier to get J. Edgar into politics -- he was a law student at Georgetown, and certainly moved in the right circles to get into politics from a young age. Getting him into the White House is harder given the timing...

J. Edgar, while at Georgetown, finds work as a clerk at a Senator's office rather than as a messenger and file clerk at the Library of Congress. This starts him down a career of politics: in 1920, he gets elected over in Delaware as a Congressman on Harding's coattails. "Fast-Talking J. Edgar" spends the rest of the 20s climbing the party ranks, becoming increasingly indispensable: at least one wit in a column contrasts J. Edgar's rapid-fire manner of speech with Coolidge's reticence, for instance. In 1928, J. Edgar is appointed to complete DuPont's term in the Senate, where he gets re-elected. He's named as the Vice Presidential candidate in 1936 to Landon, but that of course goes nowhere. However, he has the last laugh, as the headlines blare "Hoover Defeats Truman" in 1948; he serves from 1948 - 1956.
 

cpip

Gone Fishin'
And how did Herbert Hoover became Director of the FBI?

Getting Herbert into law enforcement requires some odd shifts, presumably in his earlier years. I'm not as well acquainted with Herbert Hoover's early life; does anyone know if there was a point where instead of geology, he demonstrated any interest in law and order? Reading this brief biography suggests that Herbert was always a math and science sort of fellow from a young age.

But let's give it a try...

Herbert lived with his uncle in Portland during the 1880s. Let's say that the Oregon land fraud scandal captures his attention, and, in a fit of moral disgust, he helps expose it, coming into contact with the United States Attorneys in the region. Instead of studying geology, he studies accounting, bookkeeping, and finance harder, and becomes one of the fathers of modern forensic accounting, such that when Teddy Roosevelt stands up the BOI (in no small part in response to that same land fraud scandal!) Herbert Hoover is a natural choice to be hired to come to Washington in 1908, being one of the men Stanley Finch wants to join as an examiner along with A. Bruce Bielaski. Instead of Bielaski, it's the slightly older and more famous Herbert who takes over as head of the Bureau of Investigation in 1912, where he continued to lead the Bureau into the thirties.
 
The only way I can think of a way is an ASB FBI coup
Get the FBI in on the proposed 1934 Smedley Butler coup, have it succeed, and the military permits a 'strong civilian' rule under a Hoover they think they can control? Maybe with serious revenues coming in through state-controlled liquor outlets and bootlegging still a common theme even into the 50s and 60s?
 
Get the FBI in on the proposed 1934 Smedley Butler coup, have it succeed, and the military permits a 'strong civilian' rule under a Hoover they think they can control? Maybe with serious revenues coming in through state-controlled liquor outlets and bootlegging still a common theme even into the 50s and 60s?
America, meet Pakistan!
 
Hoover had the chance to move beyond FBI Director, but he was also a notoriously private man who seemed to prefer to rule from behind the scenes than in public. After all, he became Director for Life by amassing dirt on Presidents and Congressmen and used that info to deter them from replacing him. He obviously loved the power and wanted to stay there. Also, a lifelong bachelor who lived with a male companion would be the target of much gossip, especially during the so called Lavendar Scare, so election to high office would be tricky.

However, I've read that Hoover did want to move up to the Supreme Court. To do this, he secretly fed foreign policy info to Thomas Dewey's 1948 campaign in exchange for being appointed Attorney General. Once promoted to head Justice, Hoover was to fill up the first open spot on the Supreme Court. (Two Associate seats opened up in 1949, so had the plan worked Hoover would have moved to the Court within months). Of course, Truman defeated Dewey and Hoover's plan failed. Now at first glance Justice (or Chief Justice) J. Edgar Hoover would be a troubling prospect given Hoover's awful record on individual liberties and civil rights. However even if Dewey had won and appointed Hoover, 7 out of the 9 Justices would be Roosevelt/Truman liberals. The one remaining Justice would almost certainly be a liberal Republican. So if Hoover decides to push his regressive views into judicial decisions, he'd likely fail and be condemned to the fate of a lone wolf crying out in the wilderness. Better for America, but a sad anti-climax to Hoover's career.
 
...Of course, Truman defeated Dewey and Hoover's plan failed. Now at first glance Justice (or Chief Justice) J. Edgar Hoover would be a troubling prospect given Hoover's awful record on individual liberties and civil rights. However even if Dewey had won and appointed Hoover, 7 out of the 9 Justices would be Roosevelt/Truman liberals. The one remaining Justice would almost certainly be a liberal Republican. So if Hoover decides to push his regressive views into judicial decisions, he'd likely fail and be condemned to the fate of a lone wolf crying out in the wilderness. Better for America, but a sad anti-climax to Hoover's career.

Do you think it likely that Hoover had or would have tried to gain the same kind of blackmail on the other Justices, and then force them to rule with him?
 
Do you think it likely that Hoover had or would have tried to gain the same kind of blackmail on the other Justices, and then force them to rule with him?

If he is no longer FBI Director he wouldn't have the power to do so. It's possible that he would communicate with his successor (probably Tolson until the President appoints an official replacement, this happened in OTL when Hoover died), to gather dirt on the Justices so he could dominate the court. But such an insane abuse of power (fusing the executive and judicial branches) might be a bridge too far even for Tolson. Even if that worked (it might), it would become apparent to the public that Hoover is abusing his power as former FBI Director to sway Court cases. Hoover loved the power of FBI Director because he could wield immense power in secret. As a Justice however his opinions and actions would be out in the open. If all of a sudden liberal judges start voting conservative after Hoover is appointed, people are going to start asking questions and digging into Hoover's political machinations. Eventually the truth will come out, it always does.

Also, since the data was shredded upon Hoover's death we generally don't know exactly what data he had on which people. (An obvious exception would be Presidents like JFK). Justice Bill Douglas was a notorious womanizer, so the FBI probably had info on him. But beyond that I doubt the Bureau would have spent much time (if any) spying on eight mostly old men who held little political power.

Now if Hoover does use his influence as former Director to manipulate certain members of the Court, the other judges will almost certainly find out, and if Hoover can't get dirt on them they'll report it to Congress or the President. Remember, judicial nominees are weighed based on their interpretation of Constitional law. If a Justice were to so blatantly override the Constitution, not to mention destroy the integrity of the Court, at least one white knight will rat him out.
 
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