NCJ Number
89533
Date Published
1982
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This note examines the right-wing or neo-Nazi/neofascist organizations currently active in Italy, West Germany, and France, with attention to their methods, aims, and prospects.
Abstract
Throughout the 1970's, terrorism in Western Europe was mostly a left-wing phenomenon, but in the summer and fall of 1980, bombings at the Bologna train station, the Munich Oktoberfest, and a synagogue in Paris signaled the resurgence of right-wing terrorism. Unlike left-wing terrorism, which has mostly been targeted against specific persons or institutions, the right-wing operations appeared to be aimed at deliberately killing and injuring large numbers of 'innocent' people, apparently for the purposes of attracting attention to their cause and producing a climate of disorder and despair amenable to an authoritarian or fascist takeover. Right-wing terrorism seems to be interested in establishing a form of government similar to the fascist regimes of Italy, Germany, and Japan before and during World War II (and to some extent, France under Laval and Petain), while the aims of the leftists range from promoting socialism to bringing about a millenialist society. Right-wing terrorism has sprung from militarist, totalitarian sources left over from the post-World War II remnants of fascist forces. Although the likely future actions of right-wing terrorists or the future threat they pose to the countries involved cannot be predicted, there is no imminent danger that they will assume control of these countries; however, they do have destabilizing effects on the countries in which they operate and therefore on the NATO alliance as well, thus posing an indirect threat to the security of the United States. Eighty-three footnotes are listed.