Pete TrumboreThis week’s look back at the history of American terrorism provides a snapshot of some of the most common motivations for political violence, both in the United States and more generally.


From this single week in 1977 we get examples of right-wing white supremacist terrorism, New Left revolutionary terrorism, ethnographic-nationalist terrorism, and religious terrorism.

Flag of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (Credit: Wikidata)

In a 2004 publication, terrorism scholar David C. Rapoport proposed a framework for conceptualizing patterns of continuity and change in global terrorism. (You can read it here.) What he identifies are four “waves” of terrorism in the modern era, each lasting approximately a generation and characterized by a dominant (though not the only) motivating energy.

Rapoport identifies the first, “Anarchist,” wave as beginning in the 1880s, followed by a second “Anti-colonial” wave in the 1920s, a third “New Left” wave in the 1960s, and a fourth “Religious” wave beginning in the 1990s. In an article published earlier this year, Rapoport suggests we are now in a fifth “Right Wing” wave which began in the mid-2000s. You’ll note that the four attacks described below fit comfortably with these characterizations.

On to this week’s look back.

  • Oct. 3, 1977 — Los Angeles: The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia plants a bomb at the home of historian Stanford Shaw in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. Shaw, a professor at UCLA, was best known for his work on the Ottoman Empire, but he received considerable criticism for a perceived pro-Turkish bias in his work and his denial of the Armenian genocide. ASALA, one of several pro-Armenian terrorist organizations active in the United States, was organized in 1975 with the primary objective of forcing Turkey to admit responsibility for the Armenian genocide of 1915. The group carried out nearly 200 attacks in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East between 1975 and 1997.
  • Oct. 6, 1977 – Seattle: A firebomb is planted at a Buick car dealership, but fails to detonate. The device was comprised of a white plastic timer, a gallon bottle of gasoline and sulfuric acid, wrapped in cheesecloth soaked with a potassium chlorate solution. In a communique released several days later, the George Jackson Brigade said the dealership was targeted because its owner was the head of the King County Automobile Dealers’ Association. The George Jackson Brigade was a leftist revolutionary organization formed in the mid 1970s and carried out a range of attacks on government and business targets between 1975 and 1977.
  • Oct. 8, 1977 — Los Angeles: Members of the group Jewish Armed Resistance bomb the Beth Sar Shalom Religious Center, a liberal Jewish temple in North Hollywood. In a letter sent after the attack, JAR claimed responsibility and said the motive for the bombing was opposition to the synagogue’s too liberal stance on anti-Semitism.
  • Oct. 8, 1977 — Richmond Heights, MO: Joseph Paul Franklin, a notorious white supremacist serial killer, fires five shots into a crowd of people leaving a Bar Mitzvah at the Brith Shalom Kneseth Israel Congregation synagogue, killing one and wounding two others. Franklin spent several days before the attack scouting synagogues in the St. Louis area before settling on the location for his attack, chosen because he could fire from concealment. He fled the scene on a bicycle. Franklin, who was a member of both the Neo-Nazi National Socialist White Peoples Party and the Ku Klux Klan, carried out a series of anti-Semitic and racist attacks between 1977 and his arrest in 1980. He was convicted of several murders, leading to five life sentences and two death sentences. He later confessed to the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. Franklin was executed by lethal injection in 2013.

Professor Peter Trumbore blogs @ Observations/Research/Diversions.

This Week In Terrorism History: Oct. 3-9

Pete TrumboreThis week’s look back at the history of American terrorism provides a snapshot of some of the most common motivations for political violence, both in the United States and more generally.


From this single week in 1977 we get examples of right-wing white supremacist terrorism, New Left revolutionary terrorism, ethnographic-nationalist terrorism, and religious terrorism.

Flag of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (Credit: Wikidata)

In a 2004 publication, terrorism scholar David C. Rapoport proposed a framework for conceptualizing patterns of continuity and change in global terrorism. (You can read it here.) What he identifies are four “waves” of terrorism in the modern era, each lasting approximately a generation and characterized by a dominant (though not the only) motivating energy.

Rapoport identifies the first, “Anarchist,” wave as beginning in the 1880s, followed by a second “Anti-colonial” wave in the 1920s, a third “New Left” wave in the 1960s, and a fourth “Religious” wave beginning in the 1990s. In an article published earlier this year, Rapoport suggests we are now in a fifth “Right Wing” wave which began in the mid-2000s. You’ll note that the four attacks described below fit comfortably with these characterizations.

On to this week’s look back.

  • Oct. 3, 1977 — Los Angeles: The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia plants a bomb at the home of historian Stanford Shaw in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. Shaw, a professor at UCLA, was best known for his work on the Ottoman Empire, but he received considerable criticism for a perceived pro-Turkish bias in his work and his denial of the Armenian genocide. ASALA, one of several pro-Armenian terrorist organizations active in the United States, was organized in 1975 with the primary objective of forcing Turkey to admit responsibility for the Armenian genocide of 1915. The group carried out nearly 200 attacks in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East between 1975 and 1997.
  • Oct. 6, 1977 – Seattle: A firebomb is planted at a Buick car dealership, but fails to detonate. The device was comprised of a white plastic timer, a gallon bottle of gasoline and sulfuric acid, wrapped in cheesecloth soaked with a potassium chlorate solution. In a communique released several days later, the George Jackson Brigade said the dealership was targeted because its owner was the head of the King County Automobile Dealers’ Association. The George Jackson Brigade was a leftist revolutionary organization formed in the mid 1970s and carried out a range of attacks on government and business targets between 1975 and 1977.
  • Oct. 8, 1977 — Los Angeles: Members of the group Jewish Armed Resistance bomb the Beth Sar Shalom Religious Center, a liberal Jewish temple in North Hollywood. In a letter sent after the attack, JAR claimed responsibility and said the motive for the bombing was opposition to the synagogue’s too liberal stance on anti-Semitism.
  • Oct. 8, 1977 — Richmond Heights, MO: Joseph Paul Franklin, a notorious white supremacist serial killer, fires five shots into a crowd of people leaving a Bar Mitzvah at the Brith Shalom Kneseth Israel Congregation synagogue, killing one and wounding two others. Franklin spent several days before the attack scouting synagogues in the St. Louis area before settling on the location for his attack, chosen because he could fire from concealment. He fled the scene on a bicycle. Franklin, who was a member of both the Neo-Nazi National Socialist White Peoples Party and the Ku Klux Klan, carried out a series of anti-Semitic and racist attacks between 1977 and his arrest in 1980. He was convicted of several murders, leading to five life sentences and two death sentences. He later confessed to the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. Franklin was executed by lethal injection in 2013.

Professor Peter Trumbore blogs @ Observations/Research/Diversions.

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