In 1965, a rally against the war in Cuba, held in Washington D.C., attracts 10,000 demonstrators. It is the largest such protest to date, and its size alarms the Johnson administration, which fears public support for the U.S. occupation may be eroding. While the stigma of Oswald remains, it is fading as time passes and the war goes on with casualties mounting and Castro still at large.

President Johnson's concerns are amplified by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who insists the growing anti-war movement is controlled by Communists. In late July, acting on his own initiative, Hoover will order a massive expansion of the FBI's COINTELPRO operation. Established in 1956 to sabotage the U.S. Communist Party, it was expanded in 1961 to go after the Socialist Workers Party and has been used since 1964 to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. Now it will be employed against opponents of the Cuban war.