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'''Howard Drummond Smoot''', known as '''Dan Smoot''' (October 5, 1913  – July 21, 2003), was a [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] agent and a [[conservative]] political [[activism|activist]]. From 1957 to 1971, he published ''The Dan Smoot Report.'' a newsletter which chronicled alleged [[communism|communist]] infiltration in various sectors of [[United States|American]] government and society.

'''Howard Drummond Smoot''', known as '''Dan Smoot''' (October 5, 1913  – July 21, 2003), was a [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] agent and a [[conservative]] political [[activism|activist]]. From 1957 to 1971, he published ''The Dan Smoot Report.'' a newsletter which chronicled alleged [[communism|communist]] infiltration in various sectors of [[United States|American]] government and society.

==Background==​

==Background==

Smoot was born into poverty in a log cabin in East Prairie in Mississippi County in southeastern [[Missouri]], to William Bernard "Bernie" Smoot (died 1924), a sharecropper, and the former Dora E. Allbright (born 1892).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Bernie+W._Smoot&event=_east+prairie-mississippi-missouri-usa_49370|title=William Bernard "Bernie" Smoot|publisher=Ancestry.com|accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref> As a six-year-old, Dan picked and hoed [[cotton]] and cultivated [[corn]] with a one-mule plow at the age of eight. He had a sister, Virginia Ruth, and a brother, Jewell Martin Smoot (1911-2003), who predeceased his brother by only ten days.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?viewrecord=1&r=an&db=FindAGraveUS&indiv=try&h=23442108|title=Jewell Smoot|publisher=Ancestry.com|accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref> Despite the lack of material resources, Bernie Smoot taught young Dan how to read the classics.​

Smoot was born into poverty in a log cabin in East Prairie in Mississippi County in southeastern [[Missouri]], to William Bernard "Bernie" Smoot (died 1924), a sharecropper, and the former Dora E. Allbright (born 1892).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Bernie+W._Smoot&event=_east+prairie-mississippi-missouri-usa_49370|title=William Bernard "Bernie" Smoot|publisher=Ancestry.com|accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref> As a six-year-old, Dan picked and hoed [[cotton]] and cultivated [[corn]] with a one-mule plow at the age of eight. He had a sister, Virginia Ruth, and a brother, Jewell Martin Smoot (1911-2003), who predeceased his brother by only ten days.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?viewrecord=1&r=an&db=FindAGraveUS&indiv=try&h=23442108|title=Jewell Smoot|publisher=Ancestry.com|accessdate=August 24, 2019}}</ref> Despite the lack of material resources, Bernie Smoot taught young Dan how to read the classics.​

​Relocated to Dallas, Smoot graduated from high school and attended [[Southern Methodist University]] in University Park near Dallas, and later [[Harvard University]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], [[Massachusetts]], from which he dropped out prior to receiving a [[PhD]] in American Civilization to enter the [[United States Army]] after the attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] by the empire of [[Japan]]. However, the Army rejected Smoot because of his flat feet.<ref name=newamericanmagazine>Book review, March 7, 1994,  in ''The New American,''  ''People Along the Way: The Autobiography of Dan Smoot'' (Big Sandy, [[Texas]]: Tyler Press, 1993), ISBN:978-1884441493.</ref>​

​Relocated to Dallas, Smoot graduated from high school and attended [[Southern Methodist University]] in University Park near Dallas, and later [[Harvard University]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], [[Massachusetts]], from which he dropped out prior to receiving a [[PhD]] in American Civilization to enter the [[United States Army]] after the attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] by the empire of [[Japan]]. However, the Army rejected Smoot because of his flat feet.<ref name=newamericanmagazine>Book review, March 7, 1994,  in ''The New American,''  ''People Along the Way: The Autobiography of Dan Smoot'' (Big Sandy, [[Texas]]: Tyler Press, 1993), ISBN:978-1884441493.</ref>​

==Departure from the FBI==​

==Departure from the FBI==

 

Smoot instead became an FBI agent, a position he held until  1951, when he resigned for what he cited as professional reasons: namely, the desire to go into the field of political pamphleteering and commentary.​ Rather than accept assignment to the FBI office in [[Savannah]], [[Georgia]], Smoot resigned in part because he wanted to rear his family in the Dallas area. Smoot said that several fellow agents had complained to him about the supervisor's management decisions. Smoot said that he related to the inspector what he had heard from colleagues. Then, according to Smoot, the colleagues would not back up what they had told Smoot. The supervisor hence believed that Smoot had been disloyal to him.​

Smoot instead became an FBI agent, a position he held until  1951, when he resigned for what he cited as professional reasons: namely, the desire to go into the field of political pamphleteering and commentary.​ Rather than accept assignment to the FBI office in [[Savannah]], [[Georgia]], Smoot resigned in part because he wanted to rear his family in the Dallas area. Smoot said that several fellow agents had complained to him about the supervisor's management decisions. Smoot said that he related to the inspector what he had heard from colleagues. Then, according to Smoot, the colleagues would not back up what they had told Smoot. The supervisor hence believed that Smoot had been disloyal to him.​