Operation SHAMROCK did not end with the conclusion of WWII, in fact the foreign intelligence agencies utilized the telegraph companies until 1975—nearly thirty years after they began cooperation. In the early 1960’s, the NSA began to build a database for intel on U.S. citizens, a sort of watch-list that developed into Project MINARET with the inauguration of President Richard Nixon in 1969. The NSA was now involved in the interception of domestic communications through utility of a microwave carrier system that would pick up radio-telephone signals, both foreign and domestic. While the rights of American citizens designated their personal communications eradicated, Nixon dipped into the NSA’s collective data and illegally sought out watch-listed U.S. citizens—whose information was originally obtained illegally as well. Most of the involvement in this watch-list scenario was a paranoid response to the drastic civil liberties movements occurring at the time.
Anti-war protesting and the Civil Rights Movement provided an abundance of disagreement and suspicion around the country, and the Nixon administration desired to grab a firm hold of national security both out and inside the border.
Helicopter Democracy 