And COINTELPRO and MKULTRA were supposedly for the good of the country/public.
Always be skeptical of anything being justified as ‘for the greater good’.
Espionage against citizens in violation of the constitution is immoral, but spying on other countries is fair game. It’s a huge part of U.S. military dominance.
And was done by the CIA.
And while in hindsight it was pretty dubious if it was going to be effective, given the mindset and knowledge of the time? Plausible.
It fits under the umbrella of dirty tricks well enough to hang it at the feet of espionage to me. It was certainly gov’t sanctioned (by some definition). What else are we going to call it? ‘Frat boys misbehaving’ doesn’t give it the proper weight.