The Boys Who Played with a Match and a Drum of Gasoline. ETA’s First Violent Actions

Authors

  • Gaizka Fernández Soldevilla Victims of Terrorism Memorial Centre
  • David Mota Zurdo Isabel I University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v10i20.762

Keywords:

ETA, 1959, Bombs, US diplomacy, Political violence

Abstract

This work focuses on the analysis of the first ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) terror attacks. Its aim is to explore the violent actions that the Basque nationalist organization carried out in the autumn of 1959 (year of its foundation): crimes that some authors and ETA itself have not included in its list of criminal actions. In this sense, after consulting various sources, mainly from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at College Park (Maryland, United States) and the Benedictine Foundation in Lazkao, as well as the Provincial Historical Archive of Cantabria, the Provincial Historical Archive of Bizkaia and contemporary press by Basque nationalist exilees (Alderdi, Zutik, Zuzen, Sabindarra, Irrintzi, Eusko Gaztedi, Euzko Deya) and both American (The New York Times) and British (The Times) journals, it is held -from the perspective of the New Political History- that ETA committed its first bomb attacks shortly after its foundation, when it placed explosive devices in Vitoria, Bilbao and Santander. Likewise, based on the contemporary press and the NARA documents, the different interpretations of these attacks will be analyzed, exploring how the US diplomatic officers perceived these first ETA terror strikes. Focusing on the US officers’ abstract interpretation of the -as they called them- “Basque nationalist actions”, it is analyzed how the American diplomatic legation worried about the critical attitude adopted by these Basque nationalist groups regarding the US military presence in the Basque-Navarre provinces. Other types of militant actions are equally analyzed, such as the placement of ikurriñas and graffiti paintings, taking into account their importance as a demonstration of operability and for the attraction of sympathies toward these Basque nationalist groups.

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Author Biographies

  • Gaizka Fernández Soldevilla, Victims of Terrorism Memorial Centre

    Gaizka Fernández Soldevilla: doctor en Historia Contemporánea por la UPV-EHU, trabaja como responsable del área de Archivo, Investigación y Documentación del Centro Memorial de las Víctimas del Terrorismo. Sus líneas de investigación se centran en el nacionalismo vasco, la memoria, el terrorismo y sus víctimas. Es autor de los libros Héroes, heterodoxos y traidores. Historia de Euskadiko Ezkerra (1974-1994), La calle es nuestra: la Transición en el País Vasco (1973-1982) y La voluntad del gudari. Génesis y metástasis de la violencia de ETA. Es coautor, junto a Raúl López Romo, de Sangre, votos, manifestaciones. ETA y el nacionalismo vasco radical (1958-2011) y, junto a Sara Hidalgo, de La unión de la izquierda vasca. La convergencia PSE-EE. Ha coordinado, junto a Florencio Domínguez, Pardines. Cuando ETA empezó a matar. Colabora habitualmente con El Correo y El Diario Vasco. Forma parte del Consejo de Redacción de la revista Grand Place. Pensamiento y cultura.

  • David Mota Zurdo, Isabel I University
    David Mota Zurdo: Doctor en Historia Contemporánea (mención internacional) por la UPV-EHU. Premio Leizaola 2015 y Premio Extraordinario de doctorado 2017 por su tesis doctoral: Un sueño americano. El Gobierno vasco en el exilio y Estados Unidos (1937-1979). Sus líneas de investigación son el exilio, los nacionalismos, las relaciones internacionales, la violencia política, la historia del deporte, la música y la cultura popular contemporánea vasca. Ha publicado varias monografías y diferentes artículos científicos y divulgativos en revistas académicas de impacto y ha intervenido en congresos y seminarios estatales e internacionales abordando las líneas de investigación señaladas. Actualmente es profesor Ayudante Doctor del grado de Historia y Geografía de la Universidad Isabel I, donde es coordinador del Grupo de Investigación GIR Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales en la Era digital y tecnológica, y responsable de la línea “Política, Economía, Sociedad y Memoria: El Estado en los Siglos XIX a XXI”.

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Published

2021-07-01

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 20 (2021): Imperios de corsarios y piratas: visiones globales de violencia marítima, comunidades políticas y expansión de poder

Section

Estudios

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How to Cite

The Boys Who Played with a Match and a Drum of Gasoline. ETA’s First Violent Actions. (2021). Revista Universitaria De Historia Militar, 10(20), 281-303. https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v10i20.762