Diana: The Making of a Terrorist

by Thomas Powers

Diana Oughton (January 26, 1942-March 6, 1970) was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Michigan Chapter and later, a member of the 1960s radical group Weatherman. Oughton received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, Oughton went to Guatemala with the VISA program to teach the young and older indigenous Indians. After returning to the U.S, she worked at the Children's Community School in Ann Arbor, Michigan while getting her Master's degree at the University of Michigan. She became very active in SDS, eventually becoming a full-time organizer and member of the Jesse James Gang. With the split of SDS in 1969, she joined Weatherman. Oughton died in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in New York City, when a nail bomb she was constructing with Terry Robbins detonated, destroying the building and killing her, Robbins, and Ted Gold

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Politics, History

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Thomas Powers is an American author and intelligence expert.

He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1971 together with Lucinda Franks for his articles on Weathermen member Diana Oughton (1942-1970). He was also the recipient of the Olive Branch award in 1984 for a cover story on the Cold War that appeared in The Atlantic, a 2007 Berlin Prize, and for his 2010 book on Crazy Horse the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History.

Reviews

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this book a few times already, but needed to refresh my memory for a current writing project. This book is valuable in understanding the radical movement of the late 1960s because it was published so quickly after Diana Oughton's death (she died in 1970, and the book was published in 1971). There's something about the immediacy that makes it a good source as a historical document. Analysis and hindsight also are useful, but it's good to have books that were published during that time period fraught with conflict.

I could have used more information about Diana herself. I could tell that the author had to "pad" the book, and even so, it's still just around 200 pages. The information about Diana's early life is very good, but clearly the trail grows cold after she joins SDS and gets caught up in ever more radical circles. It's at this point that Powers gives readers a very detailed look at SDS and the power plays that helped form Weatherman. At this point, since I wasn't particularly interested in a detailed history of SDS, I glossed over those chapters.

What makes someone a terrorist? That's an impossible question to answer with any certainty, especially if the person in question is dead. But Powers paints a good portrait that shows Diana's steady movement toward more and more radical beliefs.

We don't have a lot of books out there that lend insight into the mind of a terrorist, so this is a valuable addition to the canon.

[Nate Hendrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those book that I am not sure of how they ended up on my reading list, but I'm glad it did. This is a portion of our history that I know very little about. Through this biography of one young woman who died while building bombs for a terrorist organization, I learned details about the Weathermen. I knew the Weathermen existed and that they were left wing extremists, they sought out confrontation with police, and bombed what they perceived as symbols of American power. I had no idea how crazy and cult like they really were. Some of the things they did were very similar to China during the cultural revolution. Weird rules about bathing and forced homosexual sex. Some of it resonates with today's anger at the government and the urge to take up arms to perpetrate violence against anyone that disagrees with you. Protest in the streets during the 1960's and 70's helped to bring an end to the war in Vietnam, but the Weatherman's violence was beyond the pale. A refuge for young people whose upbringing left them with emotional voids that they filled with crazy ideas of how to bring power to the powerless.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

The true story of the life and death of Diana Oughton, a member of the Weather Underground and one of the casualties of their ill-conceived bombing campaign. Draws a sad picture of a group who had no idea how to achieve their aims, and finally destroyed themselves trying. For pete's sake, this couldn't even orchestrate a proper college-campus riot at the height of the protest era. The author deepens and widens the original picture of a life thrown away for nothing until the story seems almost Shakespearian in scope. Mostly very well-written, although it started to drag when the author tried to get into the intricacies of all the coffee-house arguments about Marxist theory that somehow led these people into thinking that blowing up a few buildings would somehow spark a global revolution.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am familiar with Guatemala and what Diana Oughton saw there in the late 60's so I have always wanted to know more about her. This book is missing huge amounts of information. But in the array of inaccurate writings that exists about that time and its student movement, this book is a gem. It has some heart and it's clearly a real effort to gain insight into events that I'm not sure are fathomable. It has a really good history of the SDS. It is not the best book I could imagine on the subject, but it is the best and most insightful book about the anti-war movement that I have yet read. In an appendix it includes the complete speech that Bill Ayers made when the Weatherman went underground.

[Reader66 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book for anyone interested in the leftist groups of the early 1970s--the author goes into excruciating detail about the formation of the SDS and the schism that resulted in the Weathermen, though it's a bit dry and academic in tone. If you're hoping this book will help you understand what made Diana Oughton (wealthy, privileged, society girl) turn into a terrorist, you'll be disappointed. (Not surprising since this book was written very shortly after Diana's death and her activities while "underground" are not widely known.) "Days of Rage" by Brian Burrough has a lot more detail about this era (and a lot more hyperbole) than this book.

[Jon]

I knew I had to track this down when I read about it in John Marr's MURDER CAN BE FUN, a great magazine that I think is now, sadly, defunct (except maybe online). I just can't get enough Weatherman books (Cathy Wilkerson's FLYING CLOSE TO THE SUN, Larry Grathwohl's BRINGING DOWN AMERICA, Susan Stern's WITH THE WEATHERMEN--loved 'em all) & this biography of Diana Oughton, who blew herself off the planet when she & 2 Weatherpals, attempting to build a bomb, blew up a NY townhouse belonging to the poet/Merrill Lynch heir James Merrill, is a gem. Nothing in it as brilliant as Stern's description of her first acid trip and how it made her vagina feel, or as poignant as Grathwohl (who was a government spy) gradually falling for Weathergirl Naomi Jaffee, but it still had me singing "We all live in a weather machine, weather machine, weather machine...."

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those great little true crime/death/disaster books that I used to get at garage sales and intently read when I should have been reading something else for class. Engrossing tale about yet another idealistic youth dragged down a very wrong path via good intentions.

Surprised the teabagger/birther nutcases haven't pulled more books like this out of the shadows for the namechecking of Bill Ayers, etc.

[Howard Jaeckel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book decades ago and just remembered it, after reading articles about the political journey of David Horowitz and Peter Collier. "Diana" is terrific, a fascinating portrait of how and why a genuinely good person from a privileged background can go terribly wrong and get involved in murderous radical politics. Although I forgot it in coming up with my "read"list for Goodreads,it's unforgettable.