When did the concept of a Mid-Eastern terrorist enter the American psyche?

[Skip Intro]

It was afeter WW2, wasn't it? When did it start? With the American hostages held in Iran in the 70s? That's as far back as I can remember.

And when America came to first know the idea of terrorism from the Middle East, did it happen because of some event? And if that event was some attack on Americans, or allies, or "the West" or the ""free" world" - then why the hell did they do it? Because they hate freedom? Maybe they hate Santa Clause.

What caused the hatred between our societies, countries, nations? Where did that come from? When did it start? What caused it?

[Kagemusha]

1. The PLO did hijackings to get attention for the Palestinian cause.

Hard to reject the mid-eastern terrorist image when middle eastern arabs were committing, well, terrorism.

[SharonAnn]

2. Airplane hijackings in the summer of 1970????

[wellst0nev0ter]

29. Well, There Were A Bunch of Left Wing Radicals

right-wing terrorists like the Klan, the country was not even a decade away from a presidential assassination, international terrorists may seem like more of the same.

Boy did we get soft from back then.

[serryjw]

3. When you are brainwashed

by * a thousand times since 9-11 it is easy to understand. N one gave any thought to it before 9-11, even after the hostages

[eShirl]

7. nope

It was an old, tired stereotype by the time "Back to the Future" used it (in the beginning of the movie).

[barb162]

18. I'm not brainwahed by Bush; I'd say it started in the 70s

with the Iranian US Embassy hostages

[AngryAmish]

21. Have you seen the movie "Delta Force"?

Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin Lee Marvin utters the immortal line "It's a go. Take them down."

Anyway the movie came out in 1986 so the idea of a Arab terrorist was pretty well set in American thought.

[Kagemusha]

22. Of course it was, Delta Force attempted a rescue of the embassy hostages

And it went spectacularly badly. Helicopters bumping in mid-air and exploding over the desert spectacularly badly.

That was way back in '79, and the movie was out in '86... Delta Force is still, I believe, officially a covert unit, just everyone knows it's name and what it does :)

[AngryAmish]

24. I think the desert fiasco was what created Delta Force

(Please correct me if my facts are wrong)

The Iran desert fiasco was born out of inter-service rivalries. Everyone wanted a piece of the action so it was launched from a Navy ship, flew on Marine helicopters and had Army rescue commandos. Air Force was to fly the rescue planes. They did not mesh in training (Marines wanted to drink all the time - Hey this was the 70s and these were baby boomers) and bad things happened.

Did you know that Delta Force was lee marvin's last movie?

[Kagemusha]

25. I think more like it was Delta's first full deployment but it wasn't old

I know that the rest of your facts about the inter-service rivalries is painfully correct. Makes me want to shake my fist, even though I'm young enough this was before my time. Failure is not inevitable. In this case, it got a LOT of help along the way.

Didn't know abou the Lee Marvin part at all.

[serryjw]

27. If you ask 100

Americans 90% will say worry about terrorist since 9-11. Most would not know of the movie, or remember the USS Col or the embassy bombings

[AngryAmish]

30. Why did we cancel our class trip to Europe in 1986?

Terrorism.

[serryjw]

31. America wasn't in your class

You should know their span of attention is days, not years

[Name removed]

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[napi21]

5. I guess it entered some awareness during all the wars and

suicide bombongsin Israel & Palestine, then escalated with the bombings of American Embassy's and the Cole, the the thing that brought it to plain sight was the WTC. I admit, I knew all this hate existed, but I was one of the people who kept saying why would anyone want to live in those places? Hell, I'd find a way to move SOMEWHERE ELSE!

[Alcibiades]

12. Hate isn't the reason

Most terrorists see themselves as soldiers. They are using a tactic they deem acceptable in the service of their cause. Of course, terrorists are not crazy, they perform normally on psychological tests (Richard Reed and Jose Padilla excepted, those two are frickin loony nutjobs, and are said to be regarded as such by the real terrorists.)

[napi21]

13. Oh, I don't dssagree with that! I guess I have to look back at the

ancient days of the crusades. I would say the same about them. The believed they had a cause that they were willing to die for, and many did! Thank God, those days are in the past. I guess I'm desperately searching for what would make the same thing happen with the "terrorists" of today. Most of their intents are religion oriented.

Iknow there will never be one religionin the World. What has to happen to make everyone realize that andfor lack of a better solution...ignoreeach other?

[walkon]

6. Since the 70's anyway.

But not until Bush did we know we should shit our pants and cry out like surrender monkeys. I mean, he's been such a great role model!

[rug]

8. It really took off after the Berlin Wall fell.

[Alcibiades]

11. Sort of

It was really hot and heavy in the 1970's and early 1980's, slowed down a bit as that generation of terrorists were caught/killed, and then picked back up again after the end of the Cold War. The terrorism of the 1970's-80's was largely secular and Palestinian, the later wave came (at least in part) from fanatical Muslim veterans of the Afghan War.

[TankLV]

9. Ever since the Arab terrorists started indiscriminately blowing up

innocent people - men women and children - in random, unprovoked terrorists attacks, from busses to shops to airplanes.

It has taken an upturn mostly since the 60's.

[Alcibiades]

10. September 5, 1972

That's it. That's when Black September, a Palestinian terror group allegedly tied to Arafat's Fatah movement/party, began the hostage crisis in Munich that became known as the Munich Massacre, for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. I was only four, but it made a heck of an impression on me.

The hatred of Americans is almost totally based on the US government's support of Israel, although we've certainly given Arabs and Muslims a set of entirely new reasons to hate us lately.

Anyway, the 1970's were a sort of golden age of international terrorists, when Palestinians, Europeans, South Americans, Asians--in short, people throughout the world--got together and chucked bombs onto subways, kidnapped capitalists, etc. Marxism-Leninism gave terrorists an ideology they could all get behind and, in the USSR and its satellites, some sponsors with fairly deep pockets. (Google Baader-Meinhof Gang or Carlos the Jackal if you want more info on terrorists of this era. Carlos has the most kickass nickname of any terrorist ever.)

The Afghan War (between the USSR and the Afghans) spawned a new generation of terrorists just as the Cold War fizzled. This conflict was where bin Laden and other international Jihadists cut their teeth. Absolutely no one should be surprised by the phenomenon of radical Islamic terrorism--this particular brand of it has been around since the 1980's, and its ideology has been in development since the 1950's.

[Skip Intro]

15. fascinating

[lonestarnot]

20. Wasn't there one terrorist plane hijack before Munich?

[Alcibiades]

28. There were several

Look up "Dawson's Field Hijackings" for info on the most spectacular of these, in September, 1970.

The hijackings of this era were mainly done by the Popular front for the Liberation of Palestine. From Wikipedia:

"The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Arabic الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين - al-jabhah al-sha`biyyah li-tahrīr filastīn), a Marxist-Leninist, nationalist Palestinian political and military organization, was founded in 1967. Prior to the Dawson's Field hijackings, the PFLP had already achieved notoriety for several similar incidents, including the hijacking of an El Al flight from Rome to Lod airport, Israel, on July 23, 1968, in which 21 passengers and 11 crew members were held for 39 days; armed attacks on El Al jets in Athens (December 1968), killing one and wounding two, and Zürich (February 1969), killing the co-pilot and wounding the pilot; and the hijacking of a TWA flight from Los Angeles to Damascus on August 29, 1969, by a PFLP cell led by Leila Khaled, who became the PFLP's most famous recruit. Two Israeli passengers were held for 44 days.

Several months prior to the Dawson's Field hijackings, the PFLP bombed Swissair Flight 330 bound for Israel, killing 47 on February 21, 1970."

Though these were all certainly big news, I think Munich had the biggest impact on the popular imagination.

[EC]

14. Munich... n/t

[PointAndLaugh]

16. 1970s, the oil embargo aka "The Oil Crisis"

Until then, most Americans didn't give two shits about Arabs, Muslims, or that part of the world. Arab nations announced that they would not supply oil to any nations that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War (primarily they meant United States) Also, the American public was ready for another public enemy, after all the embarrassing situation in Vietnam was drawing to a close (the ass kicking US of A was receiving was reaching it's peak), and America needed a fresh enemy. An enemy that they could hate from afar, and fight by proxy (Israel)...well until 1980s at least.

Ta da! Hate the Arabs!

I wonder, 50 years from now, who will it be next?

My guess is that it will be whatever leftist/socialist movement that is bound to create some kind of South American Union. It will be new a kind of USSR, only south of the border. Back to hating the commies by 2050? Quite probably.

[leftofthedial]

17. Munich Olympics

[barb162]

19. Yes that was an important incident too; it was so cold-blooded

[Jed Dilligan]

23. Just from movies, I would say the 80s.

In the 70s, a terrorist in a movie was still likely to be a vaguely Central European, criminal mastermind who acted only for profit. The 80s was when the kaffiyehs came out full-force.

[Name removed]

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