In 1968, Mr. Hoover authorized the F.B.I. to wiretap a
  left-wing journalist who wrote critical stories about
  Nazis in America, internal records show.

I'll refrain from adding snark about "pragmatism" here. Part of this was fighting Russians and communism, sure, good warhawk parent, but let's not forget that the politicization and polarization of the times squeezed out a whole of left-ist causes and that the government did not play in any way fair against those who might be guilty of political dissent nor those who might report positively on political non-conformists.

On one hand, there's the act of not immediately burning potential useful allies for their (abominable racial) politics. On the other hand, there's the actions taken against political dissenters to protect those allies, actions that seem like one of those classic stacking the deck moves that gives notice to all good men that the Tree of Liberty might be looking a little thirsty.