The R Document
| Industry | Publishing |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | United States |
| Products | Books |
The R Document (1976), authored by Irving Wallace, is a political thriller and legal thriller novel that portrays a covert coup d’état orchestrated by the FBI director, who aims to nullify the Bill of Rights and seize ultimate executive authority in the United States.
Setting
The narrative unfolds in a future America beset by rampant violent crime, where FBI Director Vernon T. Tynan champions the adoption of a radical Thirty-Fifth Amendment. This amendment would permit the suspension of the United States Bill of Rights during times of national emergency. Once a protégé of J. Edgar Hoover, Tynan chose to resign following Hoover’s death rather than serve under subsequent leadership. Wallace based the character of Tynan on Hoover himself.
Background
Attorney General Christopher Collins, inspired by Ramsey Clark, emerges as the main opponent to Tynan’s agenda. Tynan has successfully pushed the 35th Amendment through President Andrew Wadsworth and Congress, while secretly formulating "The R Document," a two-phase strategy to implement it—where "R" denotes "Reconstruction" of the nation. Collins’s predecessor, former Army Colonel Noah Baxter, who suffered a stroke during a meeting with Tynan and Associate Deputy FBI Director Harry Adcock (a character modeled after Clyde Tolson), attempts to alert Collins about The R Document but passes away before divulging specifics. On his deathbed, Baxter confesses to a priest regarding The R Document; although Adcock tries unsuccessfully to extract this information from the priest, the priest ultimately informs Collins of Baxter’s revelation.
Tynan's underhandedness
In an effort to secure ratification of the 35th Amendment, Tynan resorts to blackmailing California legislators by exploiting scandalous material, expanding upon the "OC" Files originally maintained by Hoover for similar purposes. Collins, who hails from California, is encouraged to endorse the amendment on the television program Search For Truth. However, an attempt is made to discredit him by placing a prostitute in his hotel room, which fails.
Search For Truth
During this broadcast, moderated by Brant Vanbrugh, Collins debates Tony Pierce, a former FBI agent heading the grassroots organization DBR (Defenders of the Bill of Rights), which opposes the 35th Amendment. Prior to the debate, Collins realizes he is advocating for legislation that could dismantle constitutional protections—a stance motivated by his desire to honor his late father’s memory. Afterward, deeply unsettled, Collins vomits in a restroom, recognizing he has sided with the wrong cause.
Tynan against Collins and Collins's encounter with Radenbaugh
Collins’s son Josh becomes involved with DBR, arguing that no free country suspends fundamental rights during peacetime—only authoritarian regimes do so. Meanwhile, suspecting Collins’s wavering support for the 35th Amendment, Tynan seeks illicit campaign contributions from Donald Radenbaugh, an attorney unjustly imprisoned at Lewisburg. After orchestrating Radenbaugh’s release under an assumed identity and faking his death to conceal involvement, Radenbaugh manages to contact his daughter during Collins’s visit.
Radenbaugh's story
Radenbaugh shares Page 1 of The R Document: Tynan developed the concept for the 35th Amendment after examining low-crime communities—specifically company towns such as Argo City, Arizona, owned by Argo Smelting And Mining—where constitutional rights had been effectively suspended. This pilot initiative was tested in Argo City; its outcomes comprise Page 1 of The R Document.
Argo City
Collins and Radenbaugh accompany John G. Maynard, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who administered their oaths, on a journey to Argo City. The discoveries they make there shock Maynard so deeply that he intends to publicly repudiate the 35th Amendment. However, before he can take action, Tynan arranges for his assassination.
Smear campaign
Following Maynard’s death, Tynan moves swiftly to safeguard his role as FBI Director by targeting Collins’s wife, Karen, who is pregnant—a fact initially known to only a few. His first tactic accuses her of involvement in an earlier murder case that resulted in a mistrial, despite a jury nearly unanimous in her favor except for one member biased against her family. When this strategy fails, Tynan escalates by alleging Karen’s participation in scandalous orgies, aiming to undermine Collins by attacking his family’s reputation.
FBI and IFBI
During his investigation, Collins encounters Pierce along with ex-FBI agents whom Tynan had marginalized by threatening reassignment to isolated offices such as Butte, Montana or Cincinnati—locations regarded as internal political exile within the Bureau. These disenfranchised agents have formed an unofficial group known as the IFBI (Investigators of the Federal Bureau of Investigation). Collins discovers that Rick Baxter, grandson of Baxter, had secretly recorded a meeting between Tynan and Baxter that included Page 2 of The R Document. Unfortunately, Adcock intercepts and destroys the original recording before Collins and Pierce can utilize it. Karen suspects Ishmael Young might possess a copy and informs Collins accordingly.
Exposure!
Indeed, Young holds a copy of Rick Baxter’s tape, which is verified and duplicated. Collins presents its contents to California lawmakers just in time: Page 2 of The R Document reveals Tynan’s plan to engineer a national emergency by orchestrating the President’s assassination—thereby providing justification to suspend the Bill of Rights under the 35th Amendment. This conspiracy had precipitated Baxter’s fatal stroke. Legislators interpret this as a "Reichstag fire" scenario that would effectively install Tynan as the "Fuehrer of America." Consequently, the 35th Amendment is unanimously rejected, safeguarding civil liberties. Tynan takes his own life while Adcock vanishes. The story concludes on an optimistic note with the President granting Radenbaugh a pardon and establishing a commission—including Collins and Pierce—to eradicate Tynan's influence within the FBI and implement reforms. Additionally, the President pledges to collaborate with Collins on comprehensive economic and social policies designed to tackle crime—the underlying cause of Tynan’s scheme.
Commercial Reception
The R Document remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 13 weeks, reaching as high as number three.
Adaptation
In 1985, Valery Kharchenko directed a Soviet mini-series adaptation of the novel featuring actors from Latvia and Estonia. Because it depicted the American government as controlled by a secretive authoritarian faction—contrary to Wallace's civil-libertarian principles—Wallace publicly disavowed this version. No further adaptations were produced during his lifetime.