Fixing the research question

Revised Question:

RQ: How did  FBI Director Hoover's political direction of the agency affect the efficiency of COINTELPRO operations?

IV = Hoover's use of bureaucratic politics
DV = The successful use of a COINTELPRO program to degrade a subversive group's ability to harm a nation.

Problem:

Politics can have a negative impact on a nation's security.  This is applicable whether the harm is done by expediting the development of nuclear weapons for religious fanatics to the unsuccessful degradation of a subversive group.  By being able to analyze and explain why a subversive group was unsuccessfully confronted, the process of understanding how political interference can interfere with security can be extrapolated to explain how other factors can hinder national security as well.

Underlying theory:

Bureaucratic Politics

OK, I think that I have a better understanding of the difference between the qualitative and quantitative  processes.    In this case, the IV can be differentiated in that Hoover pushed the FBI in the WHITE HATE program in order to win over continuing political support;  in the NEW LEFT program, Hoover terminated operations in the fear that COINTELPRO had been exposed and this exposure could harm the capability of the FBI to operate independently.  FBI personnel considered WHITE HATE to be successful and did not think NEW LEFT was successful.

The bureaucratic politics model applies more to this perspective than did the Liberal Theory of Internal Security, which I tried to shoehorn into the complex question I was trying to ask earlier.  By narrowing the "political factors" down to one specific factor, I have better "control" in explaining the IV of Hoover's political infighting.