William C. Sullivan

William Cornelius Sullivan (May 12, 1912 – November 9, 1977) was former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation intelligence operations.

Born in Bolton, Massachusetts, Sullivan graduated from Hudson High School, and held advanced degrees from American University and George Washington University. He also held an honorary doctorate from Boston College.

Sullivan joined the FBI early in World War II, when he was dispatched by J. Edgar Hoover on an undercover intelligence mission to Spain. Sullivan returned to bureau headquarters in Washington, D.C., and took the first in a series of administrative posts that culminated in a decade as head of the domestic intelligence division, starting in 1961, and a brief tenure as the bureau's third-ranking official behind Hoover, the director, and his longtime friend and confidant, Clyde Tolson. According to his New York Times obituary, Sullivan was "the only liberal Democrat ever to break into the top ranks of the bureau."

Sullivan claimed Hoover's concerns about the American Communist Party were overemphasized when compared to violations of Federal civil rights laws in the segregated South. This friction worsened as Sullivan made his opinions public. Many bureau insiders considered Sullivan the logical successor to Hoover. However, on October 1, 1971, Hoover abruptly had the locks changed on Sullivan's door and removed his nameplate. Under the circumstances, Sullivan was forced to retire.

Sullivan then became even more vocal about Hoover's controversial counterintelligence programs, collectively labeled COINTELPRO, including operations that he himself had conceived and administered. These were intended to spread confusion and dissension among extremist political groups in the U.S., ranging from the Communist Party (CPUSA) on the left to the Ku Klux Klan on the far right. In 1975, he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, "Never once did I hear anybody, including myself raise the question, is this course of action which we have agreed upon lawful, is it legal, is it ethical or moral?"

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