Classification 98: Sabotage

Classification 98 was established in 1939 as part of the Bureau's increased responsibility for and involvement in investigating espionage and subversive activity. Investigations under this classification cover acts directed against military facilities and such defense-related facilities as plants producing defense material, communications and transportation systems, and public utilities. This classification is also used for investigations of deliberate damage to defense material including the willful manufacture of defective items.

Initially the legislation relevant to peacetime sabotage investigations covered only government property and material manufactured for the government under contract. However, as the U.S. moved closer to entry into World War II, Congress passed legislation that broadened the permissible scope of FBI sabotage investigations to include such matters as damage to defense plants and public utilities. The World War II era (1939-1945) was the period during which the vast bulk of all the FBI's sabotage investigations were opened. In almost all of these cases, however, no willful acts of sabotage were uncovered. After World War II, activity dropped until the Korean War, which saw a temporary increase in FBI sabotage investigations. Since the mid-1950s the number of cases opened in the classification has been relatively low. A small increase in investigations took place during the Vietnam period, particularly in 1969 and 1970.

NARA online catalog descriptions of holdings for Classification 98: Sabotage

Return to list of Classes of FBI Records in the National Archives