Bill Ayers Whitewashes History, Again

The Nation: Ayers Owes The Anti-War Left An Apology

(The Nation)  This column was written by Katha Pollitt.

---

It couldn't have been easy for Bill Ayers to keep quiet while the McCain campaign tarred him as the Obama's best friend, the terrorist. Unfortunately, the silence was too good to last. On Saturday's New York Times op-ed page, he announced that "it's finally time to tell my true story." Like his memoir, Fugitive Days, "The Real Bill Ayers" is a sentimentalized, self-justifying whitewash of his role in the weirdo violent fringe of the 1960s-70s antiwar left.

"I never killed or injured anyone, "Ayers writes. "In 1970, I co-founded the Weather Underground, an organization that was created after an accidental explosion that claimed the lives of three of our comrades in Greenwich Village." Right. Those people belonged to Weatherman, as did Ayers himself and Bernardine Dohrn, now his wife. Weatherman, Weather Underground, completely different! And never mind either that that "accidental explosion" was caused by the making of a nail bomb intended for a dance at Fort Dix.

Ayers writes that Weather Underground bombings were "symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam War." That no one was killed or injured was a monumental stroke of luck-- an unrelated bombing at the University of Wisconsin unintentionally killed a researcher and seriously injured four people. But if the point was to symbolize outrage, why not just spraypaint graffiti on government buildings or pour blood on military documents?

Spectacular violence, and creating fear of it, was the point. Along with beating people up and ridiculous escapades like running naked through white-working-class high schools shouting "Jailbreak!" It was what the Weatherpeople were all about.

"Peaceful protests had failed to stop the war," Ayers writes. " So we issued a screaming response. But it was not terrorism; we were not engaged in a campaign to kill and injure people indiscriminately, spreading fear and suffering for political ends." I'm not so sure that terrorism necessarily involves intentional attacks on people, but okay, let's say Ayers wasn't a terrorist. How about thuggish? Vainglorious? Egomaniacal? Staggeringly irresponsible? And illogical, don't forget illogical: as Hilzoy points out, the idea that because "peaceful protest" hadn't ended the war, bombs would is missing a couple of links. It's like a doctor saying, Well, chemo didn't cure your brain tumor, so I'll have to amputate your leg. It's not as if there was nothing else to try, after all. While Ayers and Dohrn were conveying their outrage, other people were doing the kind of organizing work that the Weather Underground despised as wimpy. Today Ayers blends himself into that broader movement, the "we-- the broad we" that "wrote letters, marched, talked to young men at inductions centers" etc., but at the time, Weatherpeople had nothing but contempt for the rest of the antiwar left. Writing letters? Off the pig! you might as well... become a community organizer!

I realize this is ancient history. As a friend who doesn't see why I am raking this all up argues, it's not as if today's left is bristling with macho streetfighters. It's hard to imagine anyone now applauding the Manson murders, as Dohrn notoriously did in l969, or dedicating a manifesto to, among others, Sirhan Sirhan. But just because it's ancient history doesn't mean you get to rewrite it to make yourself look good, just another idealistic young person upset about the war and racism. We were all upset about the war and racism. I knew people in the Progressive Labor Party who were so upset they joined the army to radicalize the troops. A freshman in my dorm was so upset she quit college, joined the October League, and went to organize in an auto-parts factory, where last I heard maybe a decade ago, she was still at work. Of the many thousands of people involved in the movement one way or another, only a handful thought the thing to do was to form a tiny sect and blow things up in the service of a ludicrous fantasy : ie, creating a white-youth fighting force that would join up with black nationalists, end the war and overthrow capitalism. Oh, and anyone who didn't see why that was the right,necessary and indeed only possible course of action was a sellout and a coward.

I wish Ayers would make a real apology for the harm he did to the antiwar movement and the left. Not another "regrets, I've had a few," "we were all young once," "don't forget there was a war on" exercise in self-promotion, but one that showed he actually gets it. I'd like him to say he's sorry for his part in the destruction of Students for a Democratic Society. He's sorry he helped Nixon make the antiwar movement look like the enemy of ordinary people. He's sorry for his more-radical-than-thou posturing, and the climate of apocalyptic nuttiness he helped fuel to disastrous results, of which the fatal Brinks robbery, committed by erstwhile comrades who became even crazier than Ayers' crew, was only the most notorious.

True, the damage wrought by the Weatherpeople is trivial compared with the war itself and has arguably been more thoroughly denounced. After all, John McCain most likely killed civilians while bombing Vietnam, and he got to run for president as a war hero. Henry Kissinger is fawned upon wherever he goes. I'd be happy to forget all about the Weatherpeople, many of whom have done good things with their lives since. But if we're going to talk about them-- and Ayers can't leave it alone -- let's tell the truth. Of all the sectarian groups from that era, Weather, in all its permutations, was the least effective and the most destructive to the movement. It was all about the romance of itself. And it still is.

[opedanderson]

Quick! How old is Obama? His excuse for dealing with Ayers was that he was only 8 when the bombings took place.

I just want to make what his age is now when he reads this article.

Barack! This guy has not changed!!!!!!!

[wkgrt]

So when peaceful means did not work, he resorted to violence.
He became exactly like the people he was protesting against. And he still could have injured or killed innocent people.
And someone actually hired him? This just shows how universities cry for more money, then spend it hiring people no on else would hire. It is shameful of Obama to act like this guy is a legitimate professor/activist.

[ausus-2009]

That Obama ever had anything to do with Ayers is an indictment on his own education. Either he was poorly taught or lacked an intellectual curiosity. These are not great qualities for a President.

[zoopster1]

People like him make me sick. In a democracy like the USA, if you don''t like what your government is doing you don''t vandalize public property or terrorize quiet suburban neighborhoods. You certainly don''t blow things up. You VOTE.

And, if you are OUT-voted, you shut your mouth and accept the results, or you find more people who agree with you and VOTE AGAIN. That''s what all other Americans have to do, which is why the country hasn''t torn itself apart in the last 200 years.

[ioweign]

Why on earth is this guy even allowed in the press.

This loser does''''nt deserve anything but jail. If he would have done this in the last 7 years, he would be at Guantanamo with the rest of the disgusting scumbags down there.

Only the Nation has the audacity to allow this scumbag press time.

Torture the unrepentant a$$hole.

Posted by gunfighter51 at 07:52 PM : Dec 11, 2008



And you probably want May 4, 1970 as a Holiday Day too...

[ioweign]

So when peaceful means did not work, he resorted to violence.
He became exactly like the people he was protesting against. And he still could have injured or killed innocent people.
And someone actually hired him? This just shows how universities cry for more money, then spend it hiring people no on else would hire. It is shameful of Obama to act like this guy is a legitimate professor/activist.

Posted by wkgrt at 05:49 PM : Dec 11, 2008


Gee - a AWOL Texas Air NG and dry drunk became president...

[ausus-2009]

IOWEIGN,

Do you want Ayers in the cabinet? I think Attorney General and Secretary of Defense are already taken.

[ioweign]

IOWEIGN,

Do you want Ayers in the cabinet? I think Attorney General and Secretary of Defense are already taken.

Posted by ausus at 09:57 PM : Dec 11, 2008


If you are going to put tags on people then put tags on them...

[ausus-2009]

IOWEIGN,

How about a newly created Cabinet post Secretary of Rewriting History (apologies to George Orwell).

[spinproof]

Bill Ayers, what you did was wrong, the way you protested was wrong, attacking American infrastructure was wrong, be quiet!

[platteman]

Water board Bill Ayers. Send him to Gitmo and let him live there. He is a killer, he needs to do time.

His version of history is just like him, all screwed up and then some.

[perceptions5]

Why do the left-wingers that run our colleges and universities hire terrorists like this guy?

What in the hell in going on in our colleges and universities?

BTW Vietnam was LBJ war and Nixon had virtually all US troops out of Vietnam by the end of his first term.

Thanks again Democrats......

[superdem]

perceptions5 - you are completely WRONG about Viet Nam - President Eisenhower, a Republican, began putting U.S. advisors into Viet Nam when the French colonial government was getting mauled by the Vietnamese resistance. Kennedy was handed the deteriorating situation, and he was advised to continue supporting the "anti-communist" South, and the whole thing blew open during the Johnson Administration, but Nixon, elected in 1968, pushed troop levels to over 500,000 in Viet Nam, and took the fighting to new heights, not only in Viet Nam, but in Cambodia too, U.S. troop levels in Viet Nam were the highest during his administration. He withdrew troops only when it was clear the war was lost, leaving enough to cover the U.S. withdrawal. Many Americans died needlessly while Nixon wrangled over an "honorable" withdrawal. This is simple history, something you obviously haven''t studied if you dare to label Viet Nam a "Democratic" war. You must be a 20 year old Neocon know-nothing.

[notblue]

Ayers is a terrorist, he is LUCKY people were not killed and that fact had nothing to do with intention. THe last thirty years HAVE NOT BEEN DOMINATED by the rightwing neocons, completely false statement. The Viet Nam war had presidents from both sides ofthe isle in control during it''s duration, Nixon happened to be in office when we withdrew, both sides were complicit in keeping us there for a decade. Only the lunatic leftwing fringe of this country would justify the actions of the weather underground back in the 60''s and 70''s. Ayers continues to rationalize and justify the violence, he reamins unrepentent and continues to teach Americas latest generation of youth, dispicable!

[perceptions5]

perceptions5 - you are completely WRONG about Viet Nam - President Eisenhower, a Republican, began putting U.S. advisors into Viet Nam when the French colonial government was getting mauled by the Vietnamese resistance. Kennedy was handed the deteriorating situation, and he was advised to continue supporting the "anti-communist" South, and the whole thing blew open during the Johnson Administration, but Nixon, elected in 1968, pushed troop levels to over 500,000 in Viet Nam, and took the fighting to new heights, not only in Viet Nam, but in Cambodia too, U.S. troop levels in Viet Nam were the highest during his administration. He withdrew troops only when it was clear the war was lost, leaving enough to cover the U.S. withdrawal. Many Americans died needlessly while Nixon wrangled over an "honorable" withdrawal. This is simple history, something you obviously haven''''t studied if you dare to label Viet Nam a "Democratic" war. You must be a 20 year old Neocon know-nothing.


Posted by superdem at
==============================

Hey super DUMB Dem.............Nixon didn''t take office until 1969..............you know nothing about history.....obviously.

Where am i wrong? ...........clueless flaming libtard

[perceptions5]

SuperdumbDem ......Whitewashes History, Again

Troops in Vietnam: Reached a peak of 543,000 in the last year (1968) of the Johnson Administration

SuperdumbDem..........all you had to do was Goggle the info................Yeah, you''re real smart............ha ha Ha HA !!!!!

[markangeloo]

This man was never convicted so unless the media is into libel Mr Ayers cannot be labeled a terrorist ?
This old pot smoking hippie has taken the advantage
of the gullible journalists to over inflate the relevance of the weather underground & his importance in the organization. I would venture that boastful Bill
never even touched a bomb but is a scaredy cat.

[notblue]

markangeloo, did you see the interview???? Aters admitted it! Get a clue, no libel if the criminal admits to the acts.

[caldwellptr]

Go talk amongst yourselves - this is an old as time story.

[neonink]

Why was our government remiss in putting this terrorist in jail to begin with?

Are we fools? Instead he gets millions from a foundation.

[ioweign]

Hey super DUMB Dem.............Nixon didn''''t take office until 1969..............you know nothing about history.....obviously.

Where am i wrong? ...........clueless flaming libtard

Posted by perceptions5 at 11:19 AM : Dec 12, 2008

Nixon was elected Nov. 68 and responsible for escalating the war into Cambodia.

Go to the Wall and our Fallen Heroes

MAJ DALE RICHARD BUIS Army Casualty was on Jul 8, 1959

MSGT CHESTER MELVIN OVNAND Army Casualty was on Jul 8, 1959

LCDR GEORGE WOOD ALEXANDER Navy Casualty was on Feb 17, 1960

SSGT MAURICE W FLOURNOY Air Force Casualty was on Feb 21, 1960

And more - all during the Eisenhower Administration

[ajmarine111]

Why was our government remiss in putting this terrorist in jail to begin with?

Are we fools? Instead he gets millions from a foundation.

Posted by neonink at 01:30 PM : Dec 12, 2008




He got off on a technicality.

[blazercoach1]

IOWEGN,

So you say that since Nixon was elected in 68 he is responsible for the escalation of the war in 68?

Obama was elected in ''08....I guess that means he''s responsible for the wall street and auto industry collaps....right?

And Nixon ended Vietnam in 1975 after a 3 year policy of "Vietnamization", which means turning the war over to the Vietnamese. And check your facts....the escalation began in early 1965 with the movement of troops from Okinawa to Da Nang. Obviously that was done under Johnson.

The information is out there unless you want to keep deluding yourself...

[rev_miesse]

-And Nixon ended Vietnam in 1975
-And check your facts

Posted by blazercoach1 at 05:52 PM : Dec 12, 2008

Check your facts, dumbschitt. Nixon resigned in 1974.

[noloyalisti]

The terrorists are the corporatist Republicons and Democrats. The ones who are sponsoring terror in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Oh yeah, the Ponzi Street crooks are terrorists also.

[ioweign]

OWEGN,

So you say that since Nixon was elected in 68 he is responsible for the escalation of the war in 68?

Obama was elected in ''''08....I guess that means he''''s responsible for the wall street and auto industry collaps....right?

And Nixon ended Vietnam in 1975 after a 3 year policy of "Vietnamization", which means turning the war over to the Vietnamese. And check your facts....the escalation began in early 1965 with the movement of troops from Okinawa to Da Nang. Obviously that was done under Johnson.

The information is out there unless you want to keep deluding yourself...

Posted by blazercoach1 at 05:52 PM : Dec 12, 2008

Nixon is responsible for the Cambodia Invasion on April 29, 1970 which is an escalation...

[markangeloo]

He may call himself a terrorist but U may not.
Especially if he is lying.

The man was on LSD
It is foolish to take his inflated hallucinatory word.

If he had really been guilty the government would have taken him out like Patty Hearst''s friends.

Bill Ayers is pure evil. He should have been executed for his crimes, and I would be very happy if he lost his life as a victim of modern criminals.

You idiots, Cambodia, and Thailand were all escalated during the Johnson administration, that is why he did not run for a second term. Nixon, brought the war to an end, with the support of Walter Cronkite, who moved public opinion towards peace with the peace talks in France. I remember how all Americans were so happy when he brought America out of the war. Stop rewriting history, we were there and we remember.

[ioweign]

You idiots, Cambodia, and Thailand were all escalated during the Johnson administration, that is why he did not run for a second term. Nixon, brought the war to an end, with the support of Walter Cronkite, who moved public opinion towards peace with the peace talks in France. I remember how all Americans were so happy when he brought America out of the war. Stop rewriting history, we were there and we remember.

Posted by KEITHGARDNER at 04:10 AM : Dec 13, 2008

April 29, 1970 was the invasion of Cambodia and who was president from 01.20.1969 to 01.20.1973 - Tricky *** Nixon...

[asamiller]

The Weather Underground''s stupid tactics did nothing to end the war in Vietnam. Public outrage at a pointless war, plus the military victories of the Vietnamese themselves did. The Weather Underground remains a modestly dangerous footnote in the story.

Keith Gardner however is wrong, Nixon substantially escalated the war. He bombed Hanoi and extended the war into Cambodia.

[chad55555]

The more I hear about this man,Barack HUSSAN OBAMA''S friend and other friends I realize America is in deep trouble. This man teaches our children puts ideas in young minds(brain washing)teaching them to hate America. WHAT HAVE WE DONE.

[tibu987]

Is Ayers related to Rod Blagojevich?

They both seem to be delusional.

[tibu987]

Ayers is trying to rewrite his own history.

[tibu987]

Ayers is trying to rewrite his own history.

[neo269]

Ayers is a murderer who should be gutted, skinned and hung alive from a street lamp the same way the Terrorists he supports hang their victims.

[greeneyes222]

The Weather Underground was a vile, dangerous group and Ayers was a criminal. He and his friend Mr. Obama appear to believe in revisionist history, but those of us who lived it remember.

Add another loser to Obama''s tab.

[czmdm]

greeneyes222 hey history genius Obama was eight when Ayers was a weaterman. You are a tool. Go back to FOX where news is not reported but interpreted.

This Ayers thing is from the 60''s. It''s a boring old story about a boring old guy and who needs it.

[czmdm]

KEITHGARDNER you are history handicapped. People like you just pull stuff out of their butt''s.

[renojmc]

Ayers is indeed an unrepentant terrorist, just the kind of guy who fits in well with Chicago-thug style politics. And of course one of many troubling associates of our soon-to-be messiah-in-chief. As bad as some of the Republicans have been, the corruption will be MUCH worse with the incoming group of thugs.

[jimandvictor]

Czmdm...Hey deep thinker.

So what you are saying that Obama was 8 when Ayers did his thing and it is OK for him to hang out and be friends with this admitted terrorist

When I was six we had a guy by the name of David Duke running around my state acting like what he was a bigot. Now what you are saying is when I became an adult and if I enbraced David Duke you would vote for me for a public office anyway because you liked my ideas...Ya right, you really make a great point.