ABSTRACT
A few days before Christmas 1975 a group of terrorists of unknown provenance broke into the OPEC building in Vienna and kidnapped the representatives of the chief oil-producing nations. At first the Vienna terrorists were said to be Palestinian, driven by despair and poverty, demonstrating against the loss of their home-land. A review of political terrorism would have concentrated on Russian terrorism and Irish, as well as on the Anarchists of the 1890s with perhaps some passing observations on the national struggle of Macedonians, Serbians and Armenians. Terrorism is widely believed to be "left-wing" or "revolutionary" in character. Terrorism is believed to appear wherever people have genuine legitimate grievances. Paradoxically, terrorism may in certain circumstances have side effects that are not altogether negative, precisely in view of its provocative nature. All statistics on terrorism are suspect - partly because there are genuine difficulties of definition.
