University of Virginia Library

Terrorists Exist

I found your coverage of the
Union of University Students quite
interesting. I only wish it had been
a little more complete; I would
have liked to have known what Mr.
Olson meant by "self-defense."

Mr. Olson comment regarding
the cliche about terrorists was
somewhat disturbing. It is far too
facile a dismissal of the term, which
does have a certain basis—and a
rather firm one at that—in reality.
Particularly during the last six
months, and even at the University,
there have been acts of terrorist on
behalf of revolutionary causes.

These have been carried out by
minuscule groups of people, such as
the Marxist splinter-group of the
Palestinian guerrillas, which has
been extensively involved in air
piracy, and the Tupamaros and
other Latin American groups that
have kidnapped diplomats and others,
and fringe elements on both
sides here at home, who have used
bombs on (seemingly) everything
from religious centers to police
stations, not to mention mathematics
research laboratories.

And here at the University, we
had some attempted arsons during
the strike in May, and a few instances
in which professors were
abused and threatened, either to
their faces or by telephone. Not
many students were involved in
these, but there were some,
(Admittedly, most of the serious
hell-raising was done by outsiders,
to the best of my knowledge, but
even these were a minority of the
visitors we had that May.)

The point is this: a minuscule
minority of student-age people in
this country, and in the world at
large, is involved in violent actions
intended either to kill people or
frighten them—which is
terrorism-on either a casual or an
organized basis. The fact that some
authorities, including those in Charlottesville,
may or may not have
used that fact either to convict Mr.
Doran or to indict him for perjury
in an improper fashion does not
drive that fact out of existence.

(As for the Doran case, it is my
belief that nobody on the Grounds
is either in possession of sufficient
facts or is closely enough connected
with the Albemarle County administration
to say definitely whether
or not his indictment for perjury is
proper, a mere harassing tactic, or
whatever. Until all the facts are
known, it would be preferable for
the people who suspect that the
courts and county of Albemarle
have behaved improperly to state
that their suspicions are suspicions,
and not to state or imply that their
allegations are facts.)

As I said above, this minority
does exist. It is violent with terroristic
intent. Denying its existence
will neither cause it to cease to
exist nor erase the stain it has
imposed on all sorts of young people's
political movements, nor restore
the dead and wounded to their
former state of health. What is
necessary now is for all young
people to disavow and disperse
these little bands of madmen
(among which the U.U.S. is specifically
NOT included), even by cooperating
with the authorities, if
necessary.

If we young people will clean
our own house' of these individuals,
we will do rather better at getting a
fair hearing from the rest of society,
but this does not include sheltering
them behind a wall of presumed
nonexistence, as Mr. Olson's
statement tends to do.