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Abstract

This paper explores the terrorist group named the Weathermen Underground Organization that was active in the United States from December of 1969 to the middle of 1974. It explains their history of the terrorist group and how they got started. Through the splitting of different organizations the founding members emerged and started the new organization. The paper will also explore the groups ideologies and goals of the Weathermen.  

The Weathermen Underground Organization’s History, Ideologies and Goals

HISTORY

In November of 1964, violence had reached a point in the country of Vietnam that a decision was made to send military forces. Lyndon B. Johnson, the newly elected president started off by sending around 200,000 men and women to fight off the north Vietnam forces, the Vietcong (). Technology in the United States at this time had improved to a point where color pictures and video could now be produced and fed to the general public. Reporters captured the atrocities of war and the unforgiving destruction to villages that are in the way. This news coverage turned the American people against not only the Soldiers, but also against the government.

Shortly after the war started, an anti-war fever spread across the nation, especially on college campuses. Just like so many of these groups to include the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Progression Labor Party (PLP), the Weathermen emerged from the same. Young men and women joined hand in hand to fight for what they felt was right and just; basing their party from the opposition to the Vietnam War and as well as from the civil right movement.

The origins of the Weathermen can be traced from the collapse and division of the SDS and PLP in the summer of 1969 (Green, 2003). Bernardine Dohrn, an early leader, emerges during this fragmentation and published a document titled “Toward a Revolutionary Youth Movement” (RYM), which encouraged the youth, who he believed possessed the potential to be a...