it was done under others like Nixon and Reagan. Former military people went into the CIA and then came out and partnered up with Birchers and billionaires and founded various "non-profit" policy groups that were merely front organizations for raising funds for supporting "our chosen terror groups" like the Contras and others around the world. Even conservatives from foreign governments said those various "front groups" were a collection of fascists, white supremacists, all around racists and neo-Nazis. When you look at who the funders were and who was involved they cross paths again and again such as Roy Cohn. He didn't end when McCarthy did.
The short version of the story is that rabid anti-Communists formed the John Birch Society, as well as other groups, funded by wealthy people and run by connected people and they viewed "taking matters into their own hands" as the thing to do. Anything they didn't like they labeled as being part of the Communist conspiracy. We got McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee and they were off to the races because they now not only had money but they had the political figures they recruited into their cause. Of course they became a natural beacon for the racists and white supremacists etc. and before long these groups were using members who had been in intelligence to conduct spying operations on activists and others. They would then provide these "files" to the FBI and police as well as to the various political figures so they could "leak" supposedly damning details to "friendly" journalists. These groups also knowingly worked to contravene laws passed by the US and to carry out covert operations against foreign policy that they disagreed with. Nixon knew and so did Reagan. The pretend acting of Reagan that he didn't know about most of Iran-Contra is laughable and was at the time.
These groups never really get penalized because they are set up to purposely have enough separation to have a defense about not knowing even as laughable as it is. They are still here today and have blossomed into a huge patch of a tangled web with each other.
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