Domestic Terrorism – The Bombing of Oklahoma City

Domestic Terrorism – The Bombing of Oklahoma City

On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m., the United States of America was reminded that the worst horror often comes from within. Within a matter of days Americans were forced to realize that this terrible tragedy may have been caused by citizens who call themselves patriots. Until the Oklahoma City bombing, Americans generally though of terrorism as a foreign problem that could not invade the walls of this nation. Many Americans had given little thought to what these patriots sought to do. Militia and patriot groups were considered to be fairly harmless groups who enjoyed stirring people up. The vast majority of Americans did not realize how serious or how dangerous these groups actually were. Very few people could understand why a fellow countryman would wreak such havoc on them. When it was learned that the accused suspects in the Oklahoma City bombing allegedly had ties to political extremist groups, citizens started to give these groups a second, closer look. Very slowly, and over several decades, these fundamental extremist groups and backyard political patriots have evolved into the most dangerous enemy this country has ever faced.

Transnational terrorism, which is almost always connected to political terrorism, has gone through a slow evolution since the 1930s (Lutke). For example, according to Philip Jenkins, the forefather to today's extremists was an organization called the Christian Front, which flourished in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Jenkins states that the Christian Front was founded by Father Charles E. Coughlin, host of a weekly radio show. He contends they were anti-Semitic, anti-communist, and anti-government. Jenkins suggests the Christian Front recruited easily from citizens who had been brutalized by the depression. He also believes that the Christian Front was able to convince many people that the government had caused the depression in order to orchestrate Roosevelt's "communist" New Deal (38-39). During the 1960s and 1970s, extremist groups fed on the Vietnam war and racism. Accordingly, extremist groups like the Weathermen and Students for a Democratic Society were responsible for a number of small bombings at the Pentagon, The United States Capitol, and several State Department buildings. Most of the people involved in these groups were young idealists who believed in the possibility of a peaceful world. When asked if today's extremist groups could be compared to those of the 1960s, Tom Hayden, once a member of the Weathermen, said: "To us, revolution was like birth: blood is inevitable, but the purpose of the act is to create life, not to glorify blood" (Marks 56).