of such an association, so an individual can do hardly anything by himself. Of course, the other possibility is for the government to be responsible for all the tasks that associations do. But we have seen that this is precisely what Tocqueville fears most. The more the government does, the more individuals, losing the sense of banding together to achieve common goals, will need its assistance. This type of government involvement must be avoided at all costs to avoid the emergence of a despotic rule.According to the classical liberal theory, government must serve one purpose and purpose only; to regulate and insure the citizens freedom. Supporters of the theory would argue that governmental agencies such as the FBI are necessary to preserve the legitimacy of the state. However, the theory reaches a paradox when a certain situation arises. Is it right to violate a few citizens freedoms in order to protect and insure the freedom of the masses? COINTELPRO was the FBI's secret program to undermine radical political thought which swept the country during the 1960s. Though the name stands for "Counterintelligence Program," the targets were not enemy spies. The FBI set out to eliminate "radical" political opposition inside the US. When traditional modes of repression failed to counter the growing "political uproar", and even helped to fuel it, the Bureau took the law into its own hands and secretly used fraud and force to sabotage constitutionally - protected political activity. COINTEL focused a vast majority of their efforts on eliminating the Black Panther Party. It systematically destroyed the power structure of the BPP; for example, fabricated letters were sent to different departments causing dissension. The FBI also used "Black Propaganda" operations. This refers to fabricating and distributing publications targeted at party members and used to discredit them publicly among their peers. Such propaganda presented cartoons depicting BPP...
