The Kennedy administration had a legitimate reason to go along with Hoover’s determination to snoop on King, Kennedy Jr. argued, noting Hoover saw King as a dangerous radical with communists in his inner circle.

“There was good reason for them doing that at the time, because J. Edgar Hoover was out to destroy Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement and Hoover said to them that Martin Luther King’s chief was a communist,” Kennedy Jr. told Politico.

“My father gave permission to Hoover to wiretap them so he could prove that his suspicions about King were either right or wrong. I think, politically, they had to do it.”

[Well, I didn’t have THIS on my MLK Day Messaging Bingo Card. Somehow, I don’t think “the Kennedys were right to have MLK surveilled” really captures the spirit of this commemoration. It certainly doesn’t do much to reassure voters that the next generation of Kennedys wouldn’t make the same choice again when it comes to potential political opponents — or in this case, a political *ally*. — Ed]