YOUNG J. EDGAR: Hoover and the Red Scare, 1919-1920

On June 2, 1919, bombs exploded simultaneously in nine American cities. One destroyed the home of the Attorney General of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer. In the aftermath of World War I, America faced a new enemy--radical communism.

Palmer vowed a crackdown, and, to lead it, he chose his youngest assistant, twenty-four year-old J. Edgar Hoover. Under Palmer's wing, Hoover helped execute a series of brutal nationwide raids, bursting into homes without warning, arresting over 10,000 Ame...