Herb Block depicted government wiretapping of private telephone conversations as bats in the night snooping for private gain rather than as guardian angels. In 1955, Block wrote: "The Attorney General of the United States, in his boundless zeal to protect the government from anything which protects the rights of individuals, has modestly requested that he be empowered to authorize taps on telephones at his own discretion." At this time, the Eisenhower administration argued that the fear of communism pervading the country justified investigating American citizens.