UNIT 3 TERRORISM AND THE COLD WAR
by the cold war. During the cold war, many terrorist organisations derived support from their allies, depending on which side they supported. State support and sponsorship was therefore a feature of the cold war terrorism. The Soviet Union and its allies such as Syria and Libya were significant sources of money, weapons, and safe havens for terrorist groups. East Germany before the unification with West Germany was also an important sanctuary and supplier of money and weapons for terrorist groups. So also were countries such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
Revolutionary groups, nationalist movements and other political extremists across the globe realised during this period that international terrorist activities provided them with a higher level of propaganda and coverage than domestic terrorist strategies had achieved (Ayoob, 1985).
International terrorism strategies allowed these groups to gain vital and dramatic propaganda material and revolutionary status through utilising low-cost incidents such as hijackings and assassinations. Thus, international terrorism became a dominant feature during the cold war especially in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Popular terrorist methods during the 1970s included hijacking and hostage taking. International terrorists’ targets included mostly individuals or groups of people who had affiliations to a desired audience. These included political leaders and industrial leaders. During this period, an increased internationalisation of terrorism took place in relation to the conflict in the Middle East. This process of internationalisation was due both to the Cold War and to the PLO’s use of bases in various Middle Eastern countries and their use of terrorism in third countries. Examples of PLO’s terrorist attacks in foreign countries are the Munich Olympics massacre in 1972, the kidnapping of OPEC ministers in Vienna in 1975 and the airplane hijackings in Uganda in 1976 and Somalia in 1977 and assassination of President Sadat of Egypt. At the same time, there occurred a change in tactics. During the 1970s more than 100 plane hijackings took place each year, the goal of which was to take hostages.
Internationalisation of terrorism during the cold war period was also linked the rise of radical Marxist, Leninist and Maoist movements that emerged in the late 1960s. Over time these movements evolved into anti-American and anti-capitalist groups that were willing to use terrorism against their own citizens in order to achieve their objectives.
The Vietcong’s victory over the United States functioned as a call to action for revolutionary enthusiasts worldwide. The belief that terrorism and revolutionary violence could destabilise Western societies gave birth to terrorist groups such as the Red Army Faction (RAF) and the Red Brigades, which operated with the Soviet Union’s moral support. A
revolutionary ethos could be linked together with a separatist project, examples being the Basque organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) and the Irish Republican Army (IRA). On the other side of the political spectrum were right-wing terrorist groups, such as the Nicaraguan Contras, which were supported by the United States as a deterrent to the revolutionary groups and to fight the spread of international communism.
3.2 International Terrorism in Africa during the Cold War
In the late 1960s, as international terrorism started becoming an international phenomenon, African states witnessed countless acts of political violence. This was mostly in the form of assassination of political leaders. By the 1980s, the continent of Africa had witnessed several acts of terrorism. Airliner hijacking was one of the primary international terrorist tactics during the cold war. The first aircraft hijacked in Africa occurred in 1961 when six men diverted a domestic Portuguese airliner to Tangier in Morocco. Many other airline hijackings occurred or were diverted to Africa during the cold war. A Pan-American airliner was seized in 1970 by three Arab men, and later blown up in Cairo. Another incident was the seizure of a South African airliner that was diverted to Malawi by two Lebanese men in1972. Other incidents of airliner hijacking that were quite spectacular during the cold war were the Entebbe incident of 1976 and the Mogadishu incident of 1977.The Entebbe incident started on the 27th of June 1976 when an Air France airliner, its flight having originated in Tel Aviv, Israel, was hijacked by four terrorists who were members of the PFLP and the German RAF, who demanded the release of 40 Palestinians being held in Israel and dozens of prisoners across Europe and Kenya. By July 4th, the Israeli used ‘Operation Entebbe’ and battled to rescue the hostages held by the terrorists (Thomas, 1999). The Mogadishu incident began on October 13th, 1977, when a Lufthansa airline, flying from Palma de Mallorca in Spain to Frankfurt, was hijacked by four PFLP terrorists.
The terrorist demanded for the release of eleven RAF terrorists being detained at a German prison, and 15 million US dollars. The airline following the killing of the pilot flew to Mogadishu in Somalia. It took a 60-man team of elite German commandoes to free the hostages after suffering for six days in the hands of the terrorists.
State-sponsored terrorism also played a key role in international terrorism in Africa during the cold war. Libyan under its former leader, Muammar Gaddafi was noted as one of the state sponsors of international terrorism (Cline and Alexander, 1986). Gaddafi
particularly supported groups that were anti-American and anti-Israel during the cold war. Several thousands of African and Arab volunteers were trained with soviet weapons in training camps in Libya. One of the examples of such sponsorship was the case of Lockerbie disaster of 1988. Pan Am Flight 103, en route from London to New York, exploded mid air and crashed into the Scottish village of Lockerbie, 15 miles north of the English border killing 259 people on board and 11 on the ground and several others injured. Three Libyans were charged by the US and UK for the bombing. Though Libya had initially refused to extradite the suspects, but following sanctions imposed on the country by the UN and diplomatic negotiations, it did so after many years.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
i. Discuss the nature of terrorism during the cold war era.
ii. How did the phenomenon of terrorism affect Africa during the cold war?
4.0 CONCLUSION
It is necessary that you clearly understand how and why international terrorism became dominant during the period of the cold war. One significant point to note is that state support and state sponsorship of terrorism was a feature of the cold war period and so terrorist groups were able to source for money, weapons, and protection from states.
However things were later to change with the collapse of the cold war in 1990s.
5.0 SUMMARY
We have examined the phenomenon of global terrorism during the cold war era. The lessons we can draw from our examination of terrorism during the period of the cold war is that international terrorist movements and their activities are also greatly influenced by the international security climate. The cold war period influenced their ideologies, movements, targets selection, funding and communication.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. What is the relationship between the cold war and global terrorism?
2. Briefly discuss the phenomenon of terrorism in Africa during the cold war.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Clutterbuck, R. (1994). Terrorism in an Unstable World. London:
Routledge.
Gardner, H. (2005). American Strategy and the War on Terrorism.
Hampshire: Ashgate.
Mayall, J. (1971). Africa: the Cold War and After. London: Elek Books.
Thomas, G. (1999). Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad.
New York: Thomas Dunne Books.