  In addition, Johnson was particularly hostile towards King’s opposition to Vietnam, feeling betrayed after his efforts on civil rights legislation.  Considering King’s opposition to the war a symptom of a larger idea of subversion, the FBI considered King’s Poor People’s campaign in a similar light. In an unsuccessful request for wiretap authorization to Attorney General Ramsey Clark on April 2, 1968, Hoover indicated that Clark had denied a similar request in January regarding King’s plans for the massive demonstration in Washington D.C. However, “in view of the recent developments in Memphis, Tennessee, where King led a march that ended in a riot, it is reasonable to assume the same thing could happen later this month when King brings his ‘Poor People’s March’ to Washington, D.C.”  Hoover attributes the decision to continue plans for the demonstration to Levison, “his principle advisor and long-time secret Communist Party member.”  The growing militancy of the civil rights movement concerned the FBI, and King’s evolving philosophy was interpreted as a precursor to revolutionary activity. King saw Vietnam, rioting, and materialism as evidence that America was in a highly tumultuous situation, and that the political reaction might be a shift away from the progress of the civil rights movement.  After the riot in Memphis, King was extremely depressed and uncertain of his leadership powers. An FBI wiretap on March 29, 1968, just days before his assassination and informing Hoover’s memo to Clark days later, reveals King afraid that public criticism of the violence would translate into a broad assessment that King’s powers of persuasion and success through nonviolence had failed, confiding to Levison, “I think our Washington campaign is doomed.”  Taken together, King’s efforts regarding Vietnam and the Poor People’s campaign combined to reactivate the FBI’s interest in his activities. Hoover feared that the communists had finally achieved control over King in his opposition to war, and opposition to government policy had long been a catalyst for FBI investigation. The Poor People’s Campaign, then, contained strains of radical thought, insofar as King saw large, concerted action as necessary to altering the power dynamics within society and the economy in order to bring economic and social justice to African Americans and other disadvantaged citizens. Hoover appeared to have mostly dropped his efforts at personally destroying King, focusing instead on gathering information about his developing political ideology and how his activities might disrupt society. While certainly not excusing Hoover’s actions, the FBI was adhering closer to its purpose than in years past.
	It is difficult to speak of the FBI during Hoover’s reign as director without characterizing the Bureau as an extension of Hoover. One contemporary news article called him “an authentic American folk hero,” noting, “The FBI, which has been built in Mr. Hoover’s own image, is generally acknowledged to be the finest police and investigative force in the world. 