Newly Acquired Goldwater FBI Files Reflect Racial Turmoil

Two FBI files responsive to Sen. Barry Goldwater were received this week from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The files were provided in response to an ongoing Freedom of Information Act request first submitted to the FBI by Expanding Frontiers Research in 2022.

Recently received was file number 56-HQ-3591, concerning a Ukrainian named Dmytro Zawolskyj and his distribution of at least seemingly pro-Goldwater campaign material. The file was compiled as part of an FBI Election Laws investigation in 1964 when Goldwater was the Republican nominee for president.

The FBI investigation was launched when the Republican State Committee of Arizona filed a complaint to the Bureau. The complaint objected to the distribution of a circular in Phoenix that cast Goldwater into racial dispute. The racist and offensive circular, as depicted in the file obtained this week by EFR:

Subsequent FBI investigation revealed the circular was distributed by Dmytro Zawolskyj, identified as a Polish Ukrainian who spoke very little English. Zawolskyj claimed to be unaware he was doing anything wrong, although his actions did not necessarily support that claim. For instance, the owners of the print shop - where the Ukrainian had copies of the circular printed – told the FBI the man had multiple print jobs and would always refuse to sign for the orders.

Zawolskyj told the Bureau he distributed some 975 copies of the 1,000 circulars he paid to have printed. FBI records indicate he would manually place the flyers in mailboxes in Phoenix neighborhoods and on the windshields of cars at the Arizona State Capitol building. He ultimately signed a statement for the FBI, denying any malicious intent and qualifying he would cease distribution of the circular. He also wrote a letter of apology to the Arizona Republican State Committee.

The second of the two files, number 56-HQ-4636, was also compiled as part of an Election Laws investigation and created from 1972-1987. It pertains to a complaint filed by Congressional candidate Mark Novak about the financial activities of the rival Goldwater campaign.

Novak complained that a group titled Goldwater Associates required financial contributions for entry. Members would then receive preferential treatment and increased access to Goldwater. This created campaign violations, Novak argued, including not registering the group properly.

To the credit of the Bureau, it followed up and even went as far as interviewing Goldwater and a key staffer about the allegations. Goldwater suggested, in effect, there was a bit of salesmanship taking place in revenue creation, and that members of Goldwater Associates received little to nothing more than the general public. Apparently, the culture of the day saw this as less problematic than actually giving donors increased access in exchange for their financial support.

Moreover, Goldwater asserted, that whether right or wrong, every political candidate was doing similar. The general may have had a point on that one.

The FBI initially provided EFR over 400 pages of previously released records in response to the 2022 FOIA request. The Bureau advised additional records were withheld. EFR subsequently appealed the withholding, resulting in the release of 23 pages in April 2023. The additional 23 pages included FBI investigation of a 1962 alleged plot to kill Goldwater, later identified as a hoax. The records obtained through appeal also included investigation of a former 1950s State Department Security Officer and CIA applicant, Edward Ellis Smith, whose career was compromised due to his relationship with a Russian woman. He went on to campaign for Goldwater as the presidential nominee in 1964.

FBI informed EFR of the existence of more records in the custody of NARA in response to the 2022 FOIA request. EFR requested the additional records from NARA in August 2022 and received them this week after applicable fees were paid for pdf reproductions.

The late Barry Goldwater was an Air Force major general and five-time Arizona Senator (1953-1965, 1969-1987). He lost his White House bid to Democrat incumbent President Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 election. Goldwater was among the high-profile supporters of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and joined its Board of Governors in the 1970s.

“I and my colleagues on the Board of NICAP think it is high time more independent research on UFO's [sic] was undertaken,” the Senator wrote in a published letter of support (see pp4-8).

Among the things that actually happened, however, was in 1978, Nazi propaganda began arriving in the mailboxes of NICAP members when then-president of the UFO org, Jack Acuff, sold NICAP mailing lists twice to anti-Semite Ernst Zundel. FBI records responsive to Zundel and his Nazi publishing house, Samisdat, were obtained by EFR and revealed the FBI identified him as persuasive and extremely dangerous. “If this man should contact gullible people who's values are completely twisted, he could become a real threat,” an FBI report warned.

The trail of the errant NICAP mailing lists led to “Christoff Freidrich,” a now-known alias of Ernst Zundel, who acknowledged ownership of Samisdat. Some defended Acuff's actions or at least argued he did not know “Freidrich's” intent to use the mailing lists as Samisdat tools for distributing Nazi propaganda. Others were much less convinced, apparently including “Freidrich” himself.

“Freidrich told [NICAP representative] Dr. McIntyre that he had bought the NICAP mailing lists from Acuff two times with Acuff's knowledge where they were going,” at least one publication reported (see pp1-2).

Goldwater went on to chair the Senate Intelligence Committee from 1981-1985. Staffer Charles Lombard, heavily implicated as a CIA asset, joined Goldwater on the NICAP Board of Governors, as covered in this writer's book, Wayward Sons: NICAP and the IC. Lombard helped facilitate the acquisition of NICAP and its files into the Center for UFO Studies, assisting in negotiations that took place from approximately 1978 to 1982.