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Reason
Reason
Matthew Petti

That Time the FBI Conspired To Get George Foreman an Award for Boxing

George Foreman FBI Muhammad Ali Bureau John Carlos Cassius Clay Tommie Smith

The FBI is concerned with a great many things today. Incels. Orgasm cults. Facebook posts. Safe-deposit boxes. Encryption.

But in October 1968, the Bureau was concerned with whether George Foreman got the proper recognition as a boxer. Files released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that the Racial Intelligence Section of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division intervened to get Foreman an additional award for his patriotism after winning an Olympic gold medal.

Foreman "gave every American an emotional lift when immediately after defeating Inoas Chepulis [Jonas Čepulis] of the Soviet Union…he showed the world that he was proud to be an American by waving a small American flag," Associate Director G.C. Moore wrote in a memo to Assistant Director William Sullivan.

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