TERRORISM IN THE 1970s term paper

Terrorism first appeared in the French Revolution when Maximilien Robespierre declared that “terror” must be used to rid France of its enemies. Robespierre’s reign of terror was significant for linking political ideology with state-sponsored violence and insisting that terrorism was a patriotic duty.

Twentieth-century terrorism differs from that of the French Revolution in three respects. First, modern terrorists are relatively few in number. Most terrorist groups number less than three hundred; only a few can count more than five hundred members. Second, contemporary terrorists cannot exist without the media. Skyjacking, indiscriminate bombings of public buildings, and the slaughter of women and children are acts that capture a huge media audience, thereby giving a few terrorists the opportunity to instill disproportionate levels of fear in people. Third, identifying terrorists with precision is difficult. Terrorists insist that they are “freedom fighters” or “patriots” and that their enemies incorrectly label them “terrorists.”

By the 1970s three distinct kinds of terrorist groups were active. First are national liberation movements that use terror against their opponents. The Irish Republican Army (IRA), for example, committed to driving the British out of Ireland, did not shrink from bombing central London. Second are terrorists inspired by religious fundamentalism that attack all emblems of secular culture. In 1979 Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized the American Embassy in Teheran and held fifty-two Americans hostage for fifteen months because Iran’s political leadership labeled the United States “the Great Satan.” State-sponsored terrorists striking at political enemies of the regime form a third category. Libyan terrorists, supported by their government, have been linked to attacks on French aircraft, the bombing of German nightclubs, and the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people. Democratic states that prize individual rights have proved to be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks than authoritarian states. However, Israel, France, and Great Britain, are three democratic countries that have developed effective procedures to combat terrorism.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. The 1972 Olympic Games at Munich, Germany, were one of the first examples of how terrorists could capture the attention of the media. In what ways did the terrorists exploit media attention? How did this incident affect future Olympic Games?
2. In January 1976, Israeli anti-terrorist forces flew 2,000 miles to Entebbe, Uganda, to rescue hostages held by terrorists after an airline skyjacking. Investigate the planning and execution of this rescue mission.
3. For a group research project on the American hostages held by Iranian revolutionaries, pay particular attention to the initial seizure of the hostages and to the efforts by the Carter administration, diplomatic and otherwise, to free the hostages.
4. “Carlos the Jackal,” born Ilich Ramierez Sanchez in Venezuela, killed more than eighty people over two decades. Review the evidence presented at his 1997 trial in Paris and evaluate the verdict.
5. Delta Force (U.S. military) and the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) are two American counterterrorist units. Assess comparatively the effectiveness of the two units in combating terrorism.
6. Of all the counterterrorist units in the world, the elite British Special Air Service (SAS) is regarded as the best counterterrorist force in the world. Investigate the history, organization, training, and operation of the SAS and write a paper assessing its strengths and weaknesses. Provide reasons for your assessment.

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “Northern Ireland and ‘The Troubles,’ 1969–1998” (#71), “The Sandinistas and the Contras in Nicaragua, 1981–1989” (#88), “The Dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s” (#93), and “Genocide in Rwanda, 1994” (#95). Search under Shining Path, Osama Bin Laden, and Muammar Qadhafi.

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Patterns of Global Terrorism. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State, 1983. State Department publication documenting terrorism throughout the world. This is updated annually.

Terrorism and Intelligence Operations: Hearing Before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, May 20, 1998. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1998. One of many major hearings before the U.S. Congress focusing on the economic and political dimensions of terrorist attacks in America.

Secondary Sources

Babkina, A. M. Terrorism: An Annotated Bibliography. Commack, N.Y.: Nova Science, 1998. Comprehensive and well organized.

Cameron, Gavin. Nuclear Terrorism: A Threat Assessment for the Twenty-First Century. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999. An overview of nuclear terrorism and its connections to political violence.

Chaliand, Gerard. Terrorism: From Popular Struggle to Media Spectacle. London: Saqi Books, 1985. The author has traveled throughout Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East to research this study. Good bibliography.

Cooley, John K. Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism. Sterling, Va.: Pluto Press, 1999. Explains America’s concerns about Osama Bin Laden.

Falkenrath, Richard A., Robert D. Newman, and Bradley A. Thayer. America’s Achilles’ Heel: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Terrorism and Covert Attack. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998. An important reminder of how vulnerable the United States remains to nuclear terrorist attack. Heymann, Philip B. Terrorism and America: A Commonsense Strategy for a Democratic Society. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998. Short and solid in its public policy recommendations.

Laqueur, Walter. The Age of Terrorism. Boston: Little, Brown, 1987. Wide-ranging coverage, especially good on developing nations.

———. The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. The best starting point; particularly good bibliography.

Laquer, Walter, and Yonah Alexander, eds. The Terrorism Reader: A Historical Anthology. New York: New American Library, 1987. A useful historical review of modern terrorism.

Tanter, Raymond. Rogue Regimes: Terrorism and Proliferation. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. The best introduction to state-sponsored terrorism.