"How Europe Won The '70s War On Terror" Topic

"On May 7, 1978, five-time Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro wrote a farewell letter to his wife from the secret cell in a Roman apartment where he was being held by Italy's notorious Red Brigade terrorists. "They have told me that they are going to kill me in a little while," he wrote. "I kiss you for the last time."

Two days later Moro's blood-soaked body was found in a rusted red Renault 4 on Rome's Via Michelangelo Caeteni, across the street from the American Studies Center on the edge of the city's Jewish ghetto. He had been killed with 11 bullets to the chest.

Aldo Moro's murder marked a watershed moment in the so-called "Years of Lead," when radical extremists from both the right and left of the political spectrum routinely engaged in the sort of urban warfare echoed by the terrorism Europeans have experienced in recent months and fear will continue to grow. And while the ideological pretexts that surround the current threat in Europe are vastly different, counter-terrorism experts say there are indeed lessons to heed today…"
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Amicalement
Armand

"radical extremists from both the right and left of the political spectrum"

Really? I'm struggling to think of a single right-wing terrorist from the 70s.

Red Brigade, Red Army Faction, ETA, PIRA, INLA, Action Directe, The People's Resistance Organised Army, November 17, Black September, et al were all resolutely leftist.

Wasn't the OAS active in the 70s too? They were extreme right. Although I agree with you that most terrorist groups were Leftists.

Communists/socialists, to be specific.

Today, they use a new name, since the leftist, communist, and socialist labels have fallen out of favor, due to all their misdeeds.

Some Italian fascists didn't throw in the towel in 1945 and at least a couple of right wing terrorist groups operated from 1945 through to the 1970s (New Order and National Vanguard).

Not that I want to interrupt this, but there was Right Wing terror group activity, including bombing a train station in Italy amongst others.

Oh, and the UVF, UDA LVF etc who murdered hundreds during the Northern Irish Troubles were all Right Wing, and remain so. 'For God and Ulster' was their slogan as they opened fire on people in pubs and Bookies.

Oh, and C18 and assorted skin gangs. And the neo nazis across Europe.

But anyway, I'll leave this hole of a thread now.

Thanks MHD.

Did/Do the UVF, UDA, etc really have any political clime beyond naked sectarianism? I've just thought of them as armed thugs and criminal gangs – a misguided reaction to Republican terrorism, rather than a politically-motivated movement.

Yes, neo-Nazis and skinheads certainly existed, but did they commit acts of terrorism during the 1970s beyond petty thuggery and criminality?

Why is this a 'hole of a thread'? It was a genuine question.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by political clime. They received weaponry from a far right terror underground (and, er…the UK armed forces), and actively, with the help of some politicians, destroyed a Powersharing Agreement in 1974 through a 'general strike' and threats of violence. The Vanguard Party wanted an independent Ulster. The Loyalist Terror groups had links with the mainland NF etc etc

It's a long story, but yes, they are Right Wing terrorists. I grew up in Belfast in the 70s & 80s in a Loyalist area, and have worked with ex-prisoners etc.

As regards Neo Nazis etc, they actively tried to destabilise through acts of murder etc. And arguably there's a Right Wing side to Irish Republican terrorism too, even though they are referred to as Marxists, and therefore 'Left', some are strongly anti-abortion, and they once firebombed a famous gay pub in Belfast.

So, yes, Right Wing terrorism exists. I suppose it depends on perception too. I see IS as a right wing organisation. Throwing gay people off a roof because of their sexuality doesn't strike me as left/liberal.

"radical extremists from both the right and left of the political spectrum"

Really? I'm struggling to think of a single right-wing terrorist from the 70s.

Red Brigade, Red Army Faction, ETA, PIRA, INLA, Action Directe, The People's Resistance Organised Army, November 17, Black September, et al were all resolutely leftist.

Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann ("Defense Sport Group") was founded in 1973 in West Germany and was a neonazi terror organisation. It was banned in 1980 by the authorities. Before the ban, the wikipedia article only mentions "minor" crimes like brawls with the police and people demonstrating against neonazism. It's influence seemed to have been largely ideologic. It was called Defense Sport Group because it actually conducted outdoor exercises similar to small military maneuvers where shooting and movement through terrain were practiced, what would be described as a terror camp today.

Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann was the most profilic of several Wehrsportgruppen in West Germany.

After the organisation's ban, several members fled to Lebanon to train for terroristic activities for the purpose of fighting the German state with deadly force. Also in 1980, two terroristic attacks took place in West Germany: A member of WSG Hoffmann detonated a nail bomb on the Oktoberfest in Munich, killing 13 people including himself and wounding 211 others (a direct contribution by other WSG members was not found), and another WSG member shot to death a Jewish editor and his wife in Nuremberg.

Thanks for the clarification MHD.

There's a larger list here, on Wiki, and Searchlight has a few archive features. Interestingly, my primary school was right next to Kincora House, the boys home at the centre of a paedophile scandal that involved some senior figures involved in the Vanguard movement, and Mi5 etc. It's back in the news after over 30 years. I moved back here a couple of years ago from England. There's a shockingly large number of racist attacks on family homes etc in the area, graffiti etc. It's quite saddening really.

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I was also going to mention C18, but yes, many of the Northern Irish Loyalist organisations were also pretty right wing (in an ultra nationalist/fascist/fear and anger leads to hate, kind of way).

Perhaps the communist/marxist/anarchist groups had better publicity? or the state focussed their efforts on them more.

We were talking about the 1970s though. C18 were a 1990s bunch.

Yes, the 1970s crop of leftist revolutionaries certainly cultivated a 'cool' factor in the wake of the Flower Power era that spawned them, which didn't do their public profile any harm.

I suspect the idea that communist revolutionaries were spawned by the 'Flower Power era' might just pass muster in very general terms but not in any direct causal manner.

Hippies (I wasn't one) were all for peace and love – not something that can be said of any of the organisations you listed. The only possible causal link (tenuous at best) is that is was quite clear that 'peace and love' got a good kicking by the establishment and would not work to change anything. I'm not saying it was a good or a bad thing but it made the case for those with a more 'self-starter' approach to social change. You might as well say that the '70s leftist revolutionaries' were the product of the era of establishment repression. Just a thought

I can say for certain that left-wing terrorism loomed extremely large over Western Germany in the 70s, culminating in the "Deutscher Herbst" (German Fall, as in the season) in 1976. It was the era of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group and others, nationals and internationals conducting high-profile robberies, kidnappings and assassinations. Tabloids reported on the latest activities on their frontpages, and people got so paranoid that they say terrorists everywhere. My parent, at that time, were in their 20 and 30s, my father was an university student and when they moved to a new apartment they parked their VW van in front and carried boxes of stuff inside. One neighbor or passersby actually suspected a terrorist lair and informed the police which came by but quickly left after finding only a few harmless young people moving into the house :D

Another funny story: Police regularly carried MP5 machinepistols at the time because the terrorists, especially Baader-Meinhof, shot every policeman on sight without warning. Once, my father, again as a student, was dribing on the autobahn on a rainy night when the car broke down. He drove onto the road's shoulder and went on to the next telephone box which are every few hundred meters on the autobahn. A police patrol picked him up to drive him to the next road stop, and when he got into the police car and sat down on the backseat he suddenly found a MP5 under him, being left there carelessly by the cops :D Not to think what could have happened had they picked up an actual terrorist.

There's the common confusion over 'left' and 'right' here.

Go on, I'll bite – ?

Well in the Seventies a lot of Right Wing Terror was state run, Pinochet for example. The German Leftist groups also came from a generation of Post War radicals who grew up in the knowledge of the crimes of the Nazi state. Which is probably the reason for the militant nihilism (and doomed romanticism) associated with them. It's reflected in many of the films of RW Fassbinder, and even in the 'Krautrock' music of Amon Duul. Who actually squatted with the prototype Baader Meinhof gang.

As an aside, the film NADA! by Claude Chabrol(1974) is a rather brilliant drama about an Anarchist cell and it's standoff with the state.

@Gwydion: In Europe, the "right"/"conservatives" are those who supported the monarchists, and the "left"/"liberals" are those who were anti-monarchists.

In the US, the conservatives are those who supported the Founding Fathers, who went to war against the monarchists.

The right/left meanings in the US are the opposite of what they are in Europe.

You also had (to those in Northern Ireland) the rather unusual case of Right Wing US types, including that NY guy whose name I can't recall right now, giving funds to NORAID. Much of which went to the openly Marxist* IRA. Confusing, I know.

*It's arguable that they are/were, but often defined themselves as such.

"Throwing gay people off a roof because of their sexuality doesn't strike me as left/liberal".

Ordinarily, I'd agree with you, but the liberals in my state actually support the people/religion that practice this, so, it just goes to show, you can't pigeon-hole everyone.

Do liberals in your state genuinely support the actions of IS and militant fundamentalists, or do they just not judge all muslims by the actions of a minority of extremists?

Thats like me not judging all christians on the actions of that US pastor who encouraged the Ugandan 'kill the gays' bill, orDUP extremists, Ken Ham, etc etc.

MHD,

I seem to remember that the INLA were declared Maoists…?

Can't recall specifically, they ended up a fairly unhinged bunch even by the standards of Northern Irish terrorists!

They could have claimed to be. They were Socialists, and ex-members of the Official IRA. Their early targets were specifically people like Airey Neave, on their suspicions of him being involved in murky plots like the planned assassination of Labour politician Tony Benn. By the 90's they were fairly chaotic. Didn't get on well with the IRA.

Things were a bit different back then, vs. today's situations, IMO … but there still may be some lessons learned …

Strange how the concepts change. The leftwing attacks wee political, ie mainly attacks on individuals as compared to bombing of lots of people. They attack"symbols of the state", and rigth wing wants a policestate and therefore attacks indiscriminately such as a train and a trainstation in Italy and the Munich attack. In Belgium a group of police made a series of bloody bankrobberies, as they wanted a policestate. Also you should the remember Ustasja, the yugoslav terrorist group masking as rigthwing liberators, but more interestedin shooting people and extorting restaurantowners.
Personally i would estimate thar rigthwing terrorist killed at least ten times the leftwing people.

Personally i would estimate thar rigthwing terrorist killed at least ten times the leftwing people.

Are Deash/ISIS, AQ, the Taliban, BH, AS, etc. Left or Right ? Rethorical question IMO … terrorists are terrorists … and in my experience … dead is dead …

Hornblaeser,

We're looking at the 1970s here, so please don't generalise or bring other decades into it. Munich – 1980. Italy – 1980. Belgium – 1980s & 90s (IIRC?).

However, to answer your generalised point, if we take Northern Ireland as an example:

The PIRA and INLA were far from discriminating in who they targeted (pubs, shopping centres, streets, railway stations…) and frequently used large explosive devices and indiscriminate weapons such as home-made mortars. While there were also some bombings performed by 'Loyalists', they were mainly the preserve of Republican terrorists.

Republican terrorism is known to have killed 2058 people, whereas 'Loyalists' are known to have killed 1026.

So instead of 1:10 as you assert, the ratio was 2:1 the other way in the case of NI.

I'd also add that in the North American experience the ultra-right wing nutjobs couldn't possibly be more opposed to a police state. The hard left also have no problem with police states when they're in charge…

Exactly Jemima Fawr. Whether an organisation is 'left' or 'right' often depends on what the person describing it thinks of it. The NSDAP was far closer to the CPSU than to the Tea Party, UKIP or other allegedly right wing organisations. As for Daesh being right wing, it's pretty close to Stalin's USSR, North Korea, Cultural Revolution China and Khmer Rouge Cambodia, i.e. dogmatic, authoritarian, homicidally repressive and an economic basket case. In short, the left/right axis is too simplistic.

It's also occurred to me that the Belgian 'terrorists' (if that's what they were – they could equally have been ultra-violent common criminals) were never identified. It was only a wild theory that they were police or gendarmerie. There was certainly no political motive ascribed to them either way.

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter …"

One man's left is another man's right. I can only imagine what Native Americans fighting for their land would've been called if they had today's vocabulary back then.