WI: Weather Underground D.C. Bombings Worse?

I was going to put this in with the "Most Chaotic 1960's" thread, but I decided to branch it off.

In 1971, the Weather Underground exploded a bomb in the ground floor of the US Capitol building. In 1972, the Weather Underground exploded a bomb in the fourth floor women's bathroom of the Pentagon. I don't think either one caused more than some structural damage.

The question therefore becomes what if these D.C. bombings were worse? IE, they caused the deaths of government officials (Senators, Congressmen), and military officials, and caused major structural damage, or were expanded to other government structures and D.C. buildings in a terror campaign? Logistically, is it possible? And what would be the effects?
 
people make the Weather Underground look at lot better at terrorism than they in fact were, like half their victims were in fact members of the Underground that got blown up making a bomb, these people are dumb and bad at what they do.
 
true enough, but Obama being butterflied away is a near certainty. The rest are questionable.

No, all of them are questionable. Killing off a few Senators in a domestic terror program, and the resulting federal response, completely changes the political and legal landscape of the US from the 70s onwards. To just assume that Carter is still elected in '76, followed by two terms of Reagan, one of H.W. Bush, two of Clinton, two of W. Bush, and then the butterflies turn up to keep out Obama is just plain silly :rolleyes:
 
Worse bombings would be fatal for the Weather Underground, but also a blessing for them, depending on the landscape of the America we are talking about. If everything has gone to hell (National Guard troops at every major campus in the U.S., resurgence of racial violence in the south, and more revelations of corruption within the government), they'll be idealized and championed much like the RAF was in West Germany, perhaps even on a bigger scale.

Means more and more bombings; they'd be emboldened. It will most certainly alienate them from the organizations that were even loosely associated with them, and more police state actions will be taken to reel them in. I don't see the U.S. government caving into the student's movement or left-wing public after a couple of senators get killed.
 
Since over 30 years of Irish terrorism didn't turn the UK into a fascist police state I don't see a more effective Weather Underground doing the same to the USA. Would probably change American attitudes to terrorism earlier than @, it would no longer be perceived as something that happens to other people in other countries.

I wonder what it would do to American perceptions of organisations like PIRA and ETA?
 
I wonder what it would do to American perceptions of organisations like PIRA and ETA?

You would hope NORAID and the like would see their funding fall, once people realise blowing up innocents isnt a "brave act of resistance against oppression":rolleyes:.
 
True, but it was one attack, rather than a sustained campaign. Several deadly attacks over a few years might change attitudes.
If Americans start seeing scenes on their TVs that show PIRA attacks in Northern Ireland and Weather Underground attacks that look similar that, IMVHO, will make a massive difference. Joe Public will start to see PIRA victims as being 'people like me'.
 
True, but it was one attack, rather than a sustained campaign. Several deadly attacks over a few years might change attitudes.
If Americans start seeing scenes on their TVs that show PIRA attacks in Northern Ireland and Weather Underground attacks that look similar that, IMVHO, will make a massive difference. Joe Public will start to see PIRA victims as being 'people like me'.

I agree, a longer campaign would probably change attitudes, I wasnt really sure how long WU were operating in OTL. On an unrelated note, would you mind PM'ing me how to register over at TBOVerse? Theres a few things I wouldnt mind knowing more about in TLW, but I can't seem to register properly
 
Assuming the rest of the political scene stays exactly as per OTL in the 30+ years from the POD, yes, Obama is butterflied away :p :rolleyes:

Ayers would have never gotten his cozy Chicago existence, and therefore wouldn't have been in the vicinity of Obama in Chicago. Obama could have realistically gotten to the state senate and beyond without Ayers, and he wouldn't have the Ayers connection as a political liability.

But yeah, lots of other butterflies would likely keep Obama out of Washington altogether.
 
Since over 30 years of Irish terrorism didn't turn the UK into a fascist police state I don't see a more effective Weather Underground doing the same to the USA. Would probably change American attitudes to terrorism earlier than @, it would no longer be perceived as something that happens to other people in other countries.

You would see the WU hunted down and wiped out just as the SLA was. As to Irish terrorism trying to turn the UK into a fascist police state, certainly not. But their bombing campaign in the UK in the 1970s did lead to some unscrupulous Scotland Yard investigators slipping their leash and creating the Guilford Four controversy.:(

My hairstylist put a notice for a Nor-Aid meeting in her shop once. I never went there again.:mad:
 
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