In 1969, Richard Nixon appointed John Mitchell to become attorney general by requesting that then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover not conduct the normal background checks required. Mitchell stayed in the position until 1972 when he resigned to become Nixon campaign manager, a role he had played in 1968. He played a central role in attempting to covertly sabotage the 1968 Paris Peace Accords that could have ended the Vietnam War. He also believed his buddy Nixon’s “law and order” political platform justified restrictions on individual civil liberties. He brought conspiracy charges against critics of the Vietnam War, likening them to Nazi “brown shirts.”