Communist terrorism
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Communist terrorism is
The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union have been credited with leading to a notable decline in this form of terrorism.[8]
History
In the 1930s, the term "communist terrorism" was used by the Nazi Party in Germany as part of a propaganda campaign to spread fear of communism. The Nazis blamed communist terrorism for the Reichstag fire, which they used as an excuse to push through legislation removing personal freedom from German citizens.[9][failed verification][10] In the 1940s and 1950s, various Southeast Asian countries, such as the Philippines and Vietnam, witnessed the rise of communist groups engaging in terrorism. John Slocum claimed that communists in present-day Malaysia used terrorism to draw attention to their ideological beliefs,[11] but Phillip Deery countered that the Malaysian insurgents were called communist terrorists only as part of a propaganda campaign.[12]
In the 1960s, the
Background
While
Not all scholars agree on Lenin's position towards terrorism. Joan Witte contends that he opposed the practice except when it was wielded by the party and the Red Army after 1917.[24] She also suggests that he opposed the use of terrorism as a mindless act but endorsed its use in order to advance the communist revolution.[24] Chaliand and Blin contend that Lenin advocated mass terror but objected to disorderly, unorganized, or petty acts of terrorism.[22] According to Richard Drake, Lenin had abandoned any reluctance to use terrorist tactics by 1917, believing that all resistance to communist revolution should be met with maximum force. Drake contends that the terrorist intent in Lenin's program was unmistakable, as acknowledged by Trotsky in his book Terrorism and Communism: a Reply, published in 1918.[25] In the book, Trotsky provided an elaborate justification for the use of terror, stating "The man who repudiates terrorism in principle, i.e., repudiates measures of suppression and intimidation towards determined and armed counterrevolution, must reject all ideas of the political supremacy of the working class and its revolutionary dictatorship."[23] Trotsky's justification largely rests on a criticism of the usage of the term "terrorism" to describe all political violence on behalf of the Left, but not equally vicious political violence carried out by liberal or reactionary factions.[26] Scholars on the Left argue that while it is a matter of historical record that communist movements did at times employ violence, the label of "terrorism" is disproportionately used in Western media sources to refer to all political violence employed by the left, while similarly violent tactics employed by the United States and its allies remain unscrutinized.[27][28]
Examples
Bulgaria
The
. 150 people were killed and around 500 were injured.Cambodia
The Cambodian genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge, which led to the death of an estimated 1.7 million to 2.5 million people has been described as an act of terrorism by Joseph S. Tuman.[29]
China
Benjamin A. Valentino has estimated that the atrocities committed by both the Nationalist government and the Chinese Communist Party during the Chinese Civil War resulted in the death of between 1.8 million and 3.5 million people between 1927 and 1949.[30]
Indonesia
The
Japan
In the late 1960s, Japanese communist Fusako Shingenobu formed the militant Japanese Red Army terrorist group. Their goal was to start a worldwide communist revolution through the use of terrorism.[33] They committed multiple embassy attacks, airplane hijackings, bombings and taking hostages. They were responsible for the 1972 Lod Airport Massacre, in which 26 people were killed and 79 injured.[34] In 1988, members of the JRA detonated a car bomb outside of a USO recreational facility in Naples which killed 4 Italian civilians, 1 U.S. Servicewoman, and injured 15 other people.[35]
Members of the JRA merged with members of the Revolutionary Left Faction to form the United Red Army, which became known for the Asama-Sansō incident, a weeklong standoff with the police after the group had murdered fourteen of its own members.[36]
Peru
Shining Path was founded in 1969 by Maoist philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán as a split from the Peruvian Communist Party. In 1980 when the Peruvian government held elections for the first time in 12 years, Shining Path rejected participation instead declaring a guerilla war against the government, perpetrating "assassinations, bombings, beheadings and massacres",[37] including the Tarata bombing and 1983 Lucanamarca massacre. Guzmán was arrested in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison on charges of aggravated terrorism and murder. Another communist terrorist group, Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, gained notoriety after taking hostages at the Japanese Embassy of Peru which lead to a 126 day stand off with Peruvian authorities.
The Shining Path is regarded as a terrorist organization by Peru, Japan,[38] the United States,[39] the European Union,[40] and Canada,[41] all of whom consequently prohibit funding and other financial support to the group.
The Philippines
The New People's Army (NPA) founded in 1969 has been described as the third largest terrorist group operating in the Philippines. The group carried out attacks between 1987 and 1992 before entering a hiatus. Between 2000 and 2006, they carried out an additional 42 attacks.[42] The NPA is designated as a terrorist group by The Philippines,[43] The United States,[44] The European Union,[45] and New Zealand.[46]
Rhodesia
In Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe in 1980), during the Bush War of the 1970s, guerrillas operating in the country were considered communist terrorists by the government. The organisations in question received war materiels and financial support from numerous communist countries, and they also received training in several of those same countries, including the Soviet Union, China and Cuba. Both guerrilla armies involved in the war—the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), and the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) attached to the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU)—were initially based in the Lusaka area of Zambia, so as to be within striking distance of Rhodesia.[47] ZANU and ZANLA moved their bases to Mozambique's Tete Province around 1972, and based themselves there until the war's end in 1979. ZIPRA remained based in Zambia. In line with the Maoist ideology professed by its parent organisation, ZANU, ZANLA used Chinese Maoist tactics to great effect, politicising the rural population and hiding amongst the locals between strikes.[48] While ZIPRA conducted similar operations to a lesser extent, most of its men made up a conventional-style army in Zambia, which was trained by Cuban and Soviet officers to eventually overtly invade Rhodesia and openly engage in combat against the Rhodesian Security Forces. This ultimately never happened.[49]
Soviet Union
After the
South Africa
During the
Vietnam
During World War II the communist
Historian and former U.S. State Department analyst Douglas Pike has called the Massacre at Huế one of the worst communist terrorist actions of the Vietnam War.[63] Estimates of the losses in the massacre have been cited as high as 6,000 dead.[64][65] The United States Army recorded as killed "3800 killed in and around Huế, 2786 confirmed civilians massacred, 2226 civilians found in mass graves and 16 non Vietnamese civilians killed."[66] While some historians have claimed that the majority of these deaths occurred as the result of US bombing in the fight to retake the city, the vast majority of the dead were found in mass graves outside the city.[67] Benjamin A. Valentino has estimated a total death toll of between 45,000 and 80,000 people between 1954 and 1975 from VC terrorism.[30]
Douglas Pike also described the Đắk Sơn massacre, in which the Vietcong used flamethrowers against civilians in Đắk Sơn, killing 252, as a terrorist act.[68] In May 1967, Tran Van-Luy reported to the World Health Organization "that over the previous 10 years Communist terrorists had destroyed 174 dispensaries, maternity homes and hospitals."[69] Ami Pedahzur has written that "the overall volume and lethality of Vietcong terrorism rivals or exceeds all but a handful (e.g. Algeria, Sri Lanka) of terrorist campaigns waged over the last third of the twentieth century,"[70] and that the VC used suicide terrorism as a form of propaganda of the deed.[71] Arthur J. Dommen has written that the majority of those killed due to VC terrorism were civilians, caught in ambushes as they traveled on buses, and that the group burnt down villages and forcibly conscripted members.[72]
See also
References
Citations
- ^ Fleming pp110
- ^ a b c Chaliand page 197/202
- ^ Clymer page 107
- ^ C. J. M. Drake page 19
- ^ Sloan pp61
- ^ Yonah ppIX
- ISBN 9780511613388
- ^ David C. Wills page 219
- ^ Conway pp17
- ^ Gadberry pp7
- ^ Slocum pp75
- ^ Phillip Deery. The Terminology of Terrorism: Malaya, 1948–52. Journal of Southeast Asia Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2 (June 2003), pp. 231–247.
- ^ Weinberg pp14
- ^ Alexander pp16
- ^ Harmon pp13
- ^ Harmon pp58
- ^ Drake pp102
- ^ Sandler pp10
- ^ Alexander pp51-52
- ^ Paoletti p202
- ^ Richard Drake. Terrorism and the Decline of Italian Communism: Domestic and International Dimensions. Journal of Cold War Studies, Volume 12, Number 2, Spring 2010 1531–3298
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-24709-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8047-0727-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7146-4998-6.
- ISBN 978-0-7656-1988-4.
- ^ Trotsky, Leon (24 December 2016) [1920]. "Terrorism and Communism". Marxist Internet Archive.
- ^ Chomsky, Noam; Bolender, John (January 2004). "On Terrorism". Jump Arts Journal – via The Noam Chomsky Website.
It's close to a historical universal that the term "terror" is used for their terror against us [the USA] and our clients, not our terror against them. Heads of states can qualify as "terrorists," when they are official enemies.
- .
In May 1948, Arendt denounced the 'development of totalitarian methods' in Israel, referring to 'terrorism' and the expulsion and deportation of the Arab population. Only three years later, no room was left for criticism directed against the contemporary West.
- ^ Tuman pp180
- ^ a b Valentino p88
- ISBN 978-1541742406.
- ISBN 9781400888863.
- ISSN 0149-0389.
- ^ "1972: Japanese kill 26 at Tel Aviv airport". 29 May 1972. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
- ^ "The IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication & Film". The International Academic Forum (IAFOR). Retrieved 6 January 2022.
- ^ "Peru in Familiar Stalemate With Shining Path Rebels". InSight Crime. 4 September 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
- ^ "MOFA: Implementation of the Measures including the Freezing of Assets against Terrorists and the Like". Archived from the original on 6 April 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
- ^ United States Department of State, 30 April 2007. "Terrorist Organizations". Retrieved 11 June 2009.
- ^ Council Common Position 2005/936/CFSP. Archived 22 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine. 14 March 2005. Retrieved 13 January 2008.
- ^ Government of Canada. "Listed Entities" Archived 19 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
- ^ Cox pp97
- ^ "Duterte declares CPP, NPA as terrorist organizations | Inquirer News". 6 December 2017. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
- ^ "Foreign Terrorist Organizations – United States Department of State". 15 May 2019. Archived from the original on 15 May 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
- ^ "EUR-Lex – 32020R1128 – EN – EUR-Lex". 17 September 2020. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
- ^ "Lists associated with Resolution 1373 | New Zealand Police". 19 November 2020. Archived from the original on 19 November 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
- ^ Windrich page 279
- ^ Wood, J. R. T. (24 May 1995). "Rhodesian Insurgency". Oudeschip: Allport Books. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-7153-9441-0.
- ^ Nicolas, Werth (21 March 2008). "Crimes and Mass Violence of the Russian Civil Wars (1918–1921)". SciencePro. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
- ^ Geifman pp21
- ^ Marcus C. Levitt page 152-153
- ^ Richard W. Mansbach page 336
- ^ David Schmidtz page 191
- ^ ISBN 978-0-415-57857-8.
- ^ Mockaitis pp23
- ^ Crenshaw pp503
- ^ Pedahzur pp114
- ^ Freeman pp192
- ^ Winkler pp17
- ^ Forest pp82
- ^ Vo pp28/29
- ^ Lanning pp185
- ^ {Anderson, David L. The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War. 2004, page 98-9}
- ^ Brown pp163
- ^ Krohn pp126
- ^ T. Louise Brown pp163
- ^ Lanning pp185-186
- ^ Rigal-Cellard pp229
- ^ Pedahzur pp116
- ^ Pedahzur pp117
- ^ Dommen pp503
Sources
- Gellately, Robert. Kiernan, Ben. (Editors) (2003) The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-0-521-52750-7
- C. J. M. Drake. Terrorists' target selection. Palgrave Macmillan. 5 February 2003. ISBN 978-0-312-21197-4
- David C. Wills. The First War on Terrorism: Counter-terrorism Policy During the Reagan Administration. Rowman & Littlefield 28 August 2003. ISBN 978-0-7425-3129-1
- Brian Crozier. Political victory: the elusive prize of military wars. Transaction Publishers 31 May 2005. ISBN 978-0-7658-0290-3
- Conway John S.The Nazi Persecution of the Churches, 1933–1945 Regent College Publishing. 1 April 2001. ISBN 978-1-57383-080-5
- Gadberry, Glen W. Theatre in the Third Reich, the prewar years: essays on theatre in Nazi Germany Greenwood. 30 March 1995. ISBN 978-0-313-29516-4
- Weinberg, Leonard. Political parties and terrorist groups. 2nd Revised Edition. 6 November 2008. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-77536-6
- Enders Walter. Sandler Todd. The political economy of terrorism 14 November 2005. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85100-8
- Alexander Yonah. Europe's red terrorists: the fighting communist organizations. 1 October 1992. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-3488-3
- Paoletti, Ciro (30 December 2007). A military history of Italy. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-0-275-98505-9.
- Harmon, Christopher C. Terrorism Today Routledge 2nd edition. 18 October 2007. ISBN 978-0-415-77300-3
- Carol Winkler. In the name of terrorism: presidents on political violence in the post-World. ISBN 978-0-7914-6617-9
- Nghia M. Vo. The bamboo gulag: political imprisonment in communist Vietnam. ISBN 978-0-7864-1714-8
- ISBN 978-1-60344-059-2
- T. Louise Brown, War and aftermath in Vietnam. Routledge. 2 May 1991. ISBN 978-0-415-01403-8
- Bernadette Rigal-Cellard. La guerre du Vietnam et la société américaine. Presses universitaires de Bordeaux. 1991. ISBN 978-2-86781-122-7
- Leonard Weinberg & William L. Eubank, Twenty-First Century Insurgents: Understanding the Use of Terrorism as a Strategy, in: Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century, Forest, James J. F., Ed. Praeger 30 June 2007 ISBN 978-0-275-99034-3
- Christopher Lawrence Zugger. The forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet empire from Lenin through Stalin. Syracuse University Press. 31 May 2001. ISBN 978-0-8156-0679-6
- Kenton J. Clymer. The United States and Cambodia, 1969–2000: a troubled relationship. Routledge. 1st edition. 11 March 2004. ISBN 978-0-415-32602-5
- Gérard Chaliand, Arnaud Blin. The history of terrorism: from antiquity to al Qaeda. University of California Press. 1st edition. 13 July 2007. ISBN 978-0-520-24709-3
- Pedahzur, Ami. Root causes of suicide terrorism: the globalization of martyrdom Taylor & Francis. 22 June 2006. ISBN 978-0-415-77029-3
- Valentino, Benjamin A. Final solutions: mass killing and genocide in the twentieth century Cornell University Press. 8 December 2005. ISBN 978-0-8014-7273-2
- Charles A. Krohn. The lost battalion of Tet: breakout of the 2/12th Cavalry at Hue. Naval Institute Press Rev. Pbk. edition. 15 February 2008. ISBN 978-1-59114-434-2
- Winkler, Carol. In the name of terrorism: presidents on political violence in the post-World War II. SUNY Press, 2006. ISBN 0-7914-6617-5
- Fueredi, Frank. Colonial wars and the politics of Third World nationalism I.B.Tauris, 1994. ISBN 1-85043-784-X
- Freeman, James M. Hearts of Sorrow: Vietnamese-American Lives Stanford University Press. 30 April 1991. ISBN 978-0-8047-1890-5
- Cox, Dan G. Falconer, John. Stackhouse, Brian. Terrorism, instability, and democracy in Asia and Africa Northeastern University Press. 15 April 2009. ISBN 978-1-55553-705-0
- Geifman, Anna. Thou shalt kill: revolutionary terrorism in Russia, 1894–1917 Princeton University Press. 11 December 1995. ISBN 978-0-691-02549-0
- Mockaitis, Thomas R. The "new" terrorism: myths and reality Stanford University Press. 15 June 2008. ISBN 978-0-8047-5970-0
- Crenshaw, Martha. Pimlott, John. Encyclopedia of world terrorism V3 Sharpe. 1996. ISBN 978-1-56324-806-1
- Windrich, Elaine. (Editor) The Rhodesian problem: a documentary record, 1923–1973 Routledge. 1st Edition. 13 March 1975. ISBN 978-0-7100-8080-6
- Slocum, John David. Terrorism, media, liberation Rutgers University Press. 31 July 2005. ISBN 978-0-8135-3608-8
- Tuman, Joseph S. Communicating Terror: The Rhetorical Dimensions of Terrorism Sage. 12 January 2010. ISBN 978-1-4129-7324-3
- Dommen Arthur J. The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam Indiana University Press. 1 January 2002. ISBN 978-0-253-33854-9
- Van Slyke, Lyman (1968) The China White Paper: August 1949 Stanford University Press ISBN 978-0-8047-0608-7
- Sloan, Stephen (2006) Terrorism: the present threat in context Berg ISBN 978-1-84520-344-3
External links
Media related to Communist terrorism at Wikimedia Commons
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