The feds once thought that they had caught TV newsman Mike Wallace “red” handed.
The FBI began keeping tabs on the late “60 Minutes” star after he traveled to communist Cuba with the show’s founder, Don Hewitt, in 1970, according to a memo from the agency’s then-director.
The file — which offers no incriminating details and reaches no conclusions — notes that Wallace went to Havana by way of Mexico with a group carrying 22 pieces of luggage and came back to the States with 26 suitcases and other bags.
But a spokesman for CBS said it was common practice for the feds to keep tabs on journalists in the turbulent ’60s and ’70s.
“It sounds silly [now], but in those days being a journalist could catch the scrutiny of the FBI,” said Kevin Tedesco.
The file includes a letter sent to Wallace by a veteran of World War II who calls the respected journalist a turncoat.
The letter reads, in part, “I have solid proof that you are an anti-American traitor . . . You make me want to puke.”