and Gurr note, ‘media coverage guaranteed them maximum impact.’ 24 Progression in the increased attacks led to the creation of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), a radicalised faction of the separatists that would later undertake a severe terror campaign during the 1970s. 25 It has been identified that around ‘95 per cent of the FALN actions focused on the destruction of property, sabotage and symbolic actions of solidarity with the national liberation movement in Puerto Rico.’ 26 The terrorist threat surrounding this group had been looming since the 1950s. As a result of other political issues surfacing, however, such as initial Cold War tensions and the violent actions of the anti-war movement, it would not be until the 1970s that they would significantly increase their campaign of terror. Although not as prominent, Croatian nationalists also provided a threat of terrorism through domestic anti-colonialism within the United States at this time. The movement itself ‘ linked émigrés from Croatia in several parts of the globe, all of them aiming to free their home from Communist Yugoslavia. ’ 27 Barry and Judith Rubin identify two early examples of terrorism by nationalists in the United States. It would be the Puerto Rican movement that would attempt to assassinate President Harry Truman during a stay at Blair House in 1950, and four years later ‘fire into the House of Representatives from the visitors’ gallery, wounding five congressmen.’ 28 Upon the announcement of FALN in 1974 a swift and destructive attack would fall upon America, seeing five 26 Michael González-Cruz, Alberto Marquez Sola and Lorena Terando, ‘Puerto Rican Revolutionary Nationalism: Filiberto Ojeda Ríos and the M acheteros’, Latin American Perspectives , 35 (2008) p. 155. 27 Al Baker, ‘Terrorist’s Release Reopens Wound of Unsolved Bombing’, New York Region (The New York Times, 10 August 2008) <www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/nyregion/10laguardia.html?pagewanted=all &_r=1&> [accessed 27 November 2015]. 28 Rubin and Colp Rubin, p. 105-106. 24 Bell and Gurr, p. 338 25 Rubin and Colp Rubin, p. 112.
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