If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. I --' . ' J ,j HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF SOVIET TERROi\ .. HEARINGS BEFORE THE SUBOOMMITTEE ON SECURITY AND TERRORISM OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY UNITED ST.A.g;ES;~'SEN ATE NINETY-SEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF SOVIET TERRORISM JUNE 11 AND 1~, 1981 Serial No.. J-97-40 rinted for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary . ~.. ~. ~ A\!?IJ.ISIJl1 ~O b'. ~~~g "1?'r.<f~~ ~l~&V U.R. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1981 U.S. Department ':.~ Justice National Institute of Justice This document has been reproduced exactly as received from the person or organization originating it. Points of view or opinions stated in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the National Institute of Justice. Permissic;m to reproduce this '*ll'yr/gJorbJ material has been CONTENTS .::lrante~i,. • . l-'ubllC Domain UTIltea~tates Senate OPENING STATEMENTS Page to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). Denton, Chairman Jeremiah ......................................................................................... 1, 29 Further reproduction outside of the NCJRS system requires permis­ sion of the 00j5) I i~ owner. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WITNESSES JUNE 11, 1981 COMMI'ITEE ON THE JUDICIARY Billington, James H., director, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars ......................................................................................................................... 4 STROM THU'lMOND;1South Carolina, Chairman Biography .................................................................................................................. 27 CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, JR., Maryland JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware PAUL LAXALT Nevada EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts JUNE 12, 1981 ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia. Possony, Stefan T., senior fellow (emeritus), Hoover Institution, Stanford Uni- ROBERT DOLE Kansas HOWARD M. METZENBAUM, OhIO versity ............................................................................................................................ ALAN K. SIMPSON, Wyoming DENNIS DECONCINI, Arizona 31 JOHN P. EAST, North Carolina PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont (III) CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa MAX BAUCUS, Montana JEREMIAH DENTON, Alabama HOWELL HEFLIN, Alabama ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania VINTON DEVANE LIDE, Chief Counsel QUENTIN CROMMELIN, Jr., Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON SECURITY AND TERRORISM JEREMIAH DENTON, Alabama, Chairman ORRIN G. HATCH Utah JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware JOHN P. EAST, l"orth Carolina PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont JOEL S. LISKER, Chief Counsel and Staff Director (II) .}, - ~--- - ~------ -------- -------~~----:--------- HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF SOVIET TERRORISM THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1981 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON SECURITY AND TERRORISM, COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:45 a.m., in room 2228, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Jeremiah Denton (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Staff present: Joel S. Lisker, chief counsel and staff director; Bert W. Milleng, Jr., counsel; and Fran Wermuth, chief clerk. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JEREMIAH DENTON Senator DENTON. Good morning. This hearing will come to order. Today's hearing will deal with the subject of the antecedents of Soviet terrorism. The other members of the subcommittee mayor may not be able to find time in their schedules to appear. Senator East has been chairing a subcommittee hearing for some weeks and is very busily engaged in preparations and reviews of those hearings. Senator Leahy, who has often appeared here, may come again this morning. He has three hearings scheduled this morning, however, Senator Hatch has two I know of, one of which I am supposed to be at in 15 minutes. I will be unable to appear with him. Senator Biden, who has come frequently, is to be congratulat­ ed as the new father of a baby girl, and he may not be here due to taking care of his wife and new baby. I would like to welcome our witness for today, Dr. James Billing­ ton, and would ask hini if he would come forward. W 6 would like to acknowlege the presence of his two sons, Tom and Jim. Dr. Billington, which is Tom and which is Jim? Mr. BILLINGTON. This is Tom and Jim is hiding back there. Senator DENTON. Welcome, gentlemen. This subcommittee has held two hearings aside from oversight hearings on the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The first of the non oversight hearings dealt with the origins, direc­ tions, and support for international terrorism. At that hearing there was agreement among the witnesses that the Soviet Union is clearly responsible for supporting and encouraging terrorist activi­ ties throughout the world as part of a larger program of active policies. It is evident that there exists an identifiable network of intercon­ nections between terrorism and those parties and entitites commit­ ted to the ideologies of Marx and Lenin. In point of fact, when we come to the realization that terrorism is possessed of a logic and is (1) 2 3 up a police station, others to raid a bank to confiscate funds for the insurrection. not the work of madmen working in isolation, the complexity Others again may drill or prepare plans to localities and so forth. which appears to surround te~ro~ism so0l?- disappears .. But the essential thing is to begin at once to learn from actual practice. Have no Much of the Soviet role In InternatIOnal terrorism has been fear of these trial attacks. They may, of course, degenerate into extremes, but that is the evil of the morrow, whereas the evil of today is in our inertness, our poorly comprehended in this country and elsewhere because of doctrinaire spirit, our learned immobility, and our senile fear of initiative. considerable confusion which is encouraged by some so-called ex­ Let every group learn, if it is only by beating up policemen. A score or so of perts regarding the nature of communism. victims will be more than compensated for by the fact that this will train hundreds That argument goes this way: The founding father~ of Soviet" of experienced fighters for tomorrow, who will be leading hundreds of thousands. communism strongly opposed the spontaneous terrorIsm of the The revolutionary who hopes to seize power through violence Russian populists and anarchists. It is presumed, therefore, that will find ample justification in texts of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and the Soviets are by heritage an ideology ill disposed toward today's other prominent Communist authors. Lenin clearly stated that political terrorism. Communists must master the techniques of struggle and conflict Based upon this presumption, the argu~e~t develops t~at t~e and during the first revolution against czarism more than 1,000 Soviets are often reluctantly or even unwIttIngly drawn Into In­ terrorist acts were perpetrated in Transcaucasia, as Trotsky once volvement with terrorists. It is frequently stated by those same asserted. misguided advocates for this thesis that. the Soviets would probably In the "Communist Manifesto" Marx and Engels specifically rec­ prevent terrorist acts if they could but gain stronger control over ommended armed uprising as a means for forcibly demolishing the the irresponsible organizations which perpetrate it. established order. General strikes, boycotts, mass demonstrations, It then follows for some that we should not only seek Soviet and other tactics which become familiar during the past century assistance in limiting terrorists, but the expansion of Soviet influ­ are entirely compatible with the Marxist prescription. ence in politically unstable countries will help end terrorism. If Marx and Engels did not recommend the armed uprising at As the record of the last hearing so clearly states, we know the every point and at every time, it was because they were anxious to Soviets have directly trained and supplied elements around the avoid premature, ill-prepared, or inopportune revolutionary ac­ world and what the Soviets euphemistically refer to as wars of tions. Lenin shared their anxiety about actions which would imper­ 1/ national liberation they have employed proxies of Cubans, East il the success of the revolution. He wrote, "Fear, like the plague, J, Germans, Czechs, and others to extend this direct effort aimed not the unruly guerrilla spirit, the arbitrary actions of isolated attach­ only at the "imperialism" of America and our allies but. at a ments, and disobedience to the central authority for it spells variety of less despotic states than their own, from MeXICO to doom." He was not condemning guerrilla warfare but only warning Uruguay to North Yemen to Morocco to Puerto Rico. against its being waged without central party control. Th~y have provided training and logistics to a number of groups It is statements like that by Lenin which give rise to the thesis who use this assistance in their own terrorist attacks. They have which I mentioned at the beginning of this opening statement. In supported a heterogeneous group of terrormongers from Libya's order to· obtain a better understanding of the historical underpin­ Qadhafi to Palestinian kidnapers of Arab oil leaders to Cuban nings for current Soviet involvement in terrorism, the subcommit­ trainees in Africa to Bulgarian assassins. tee has invited two eminent scholars to testify. Anyone who is aware of the realities I have just desicribed and Today our witness is Dr. James Billington,