CIA espionage against Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign

Political campaigns are usually expected to keep their strategies behind closed doors, but the Goldwater campaign was reportedly dealing with something far more unusual in the 1960s. According to the account, the CIA infiltrated Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign on behalf of President Lyndon Johnson and obtained internal campaign material, including copies of Goldwater's speeches.

The information was reportedly passed directly to Johnson, allowing him to prepare responses to Goldwater's arguments before the Republican candidate had even delivered them publicly. The operation was said to have been placed under the control of CIA officer E. Howard Hunt, giving the story an unusual connection between intelligence operations and domestic presidential politics.

Hunt's later career makes the account even more striking. He eventually left the CIA in 1970, only to return to government work two years later after being hired by the Nixon White House. He became part of the group known as the Plumbers, which was created to investigate leaks but became associated with political intelligence and covert activities against Nixon's opponents. The same intelligence figure therefore appears in accounts of both the earlier campaign operation and the political espionage surrounding the Nixon administration.