Customer Reviews

American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing

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This book, an unbiased review of Tim McVeigh's life, is outstanding!!! But, if you need to come away from this book with the view of Tim McVeigh as a highly disturbed, demonic psychopath, don't buy it! You won't find closue or peace in the pages of AMERICAN TERRORIST. Ever since the bombing, Americans have been looking for the monster in Tim McVeigh. Was his lonely childhood the root of his evil? The divorce of his parents? His inability to form relationships with women? Or his failure to make the Green Berets in his beloved Army? No! In this book McVeigh explains why he detonated his truck bomb killing 168 people. Simply enough, he hated the government, wanted revenge for the botched FBI and ATF raids on Ruby Ridge and WACO, and wanted to 'wake Americans up.' Americans celebrate our Founding Fathers who, like McVeigh, where revolutionary ideologues. Just because McVeigh's ideology conflicts with that of most Americans, doesn't make him a psychopath. To the contrary, he comes across as a chillingly likeable guy. So, if your looking for your own peace or for some inner turmoil in McVeigh that might possibly explain the Oklahoma City bombing, you might want to keep looking.

I have been living in the US for the past 5 years. It is in the nature of someone that comes from abroad to scholasticaly observe the new society that he lives in, compare the new culture with the culture of the homeland, and in general try to understand the laws of the new society that are formed by the people and the government.

This book taught me how superficial my understanding of the American culture was. This book is not only about McVeigh. This book is primarily about the gun culture in the United States and the antigovernment groups, their beliefs and their living habitat. I had never imagined that there are so many people in this land that share such antigovernement feelings. For the first time I understood what really gun owenership is all about. These are not simple matters. These matters run deep through the very formation of this society.

For most of the people McVeigh is a monster. This book does NOT follow this path. The authors try to follow mcVeigh from the time he was in the Army through his discharge, his frustration, his Gulf War experiences, the unemployment he faced afterwards, his reaction to the Waco incident, his involvement in the gun shows, his friendships. They authors try to understand how MvVeigh reached to the point of the bombing, step by step, trying to give a psycological explanation of what happened into the mind of this hero of the Gulf War. They do not justify what he did but they do not demonize him either. The authors themselves try to understand.

Anyone who thinks that MvVeigh is just a sick person or he does not have any logic or that he is just a monster must understand that this is only part of the story. America must understand why McVeigh was lead to the point of bombing a building full of innocent people. McVeigh was not always like that. America must understand what happened to him, what caused all the trouble. This is the only way that America can defend itself from this happening again. All the metal detectors in the world will not help a bit

It is true what other reviewers have said about this book. It will give no closure to the victims of OKC or to the American public at large. The major question (Why?) is not answered here. Rather, the MOTIVATIONS of Tim McVeigh's actions are presented in a clear and thought provoking manner. At times, I thought the two journalist authors were quite redundant in repeating McVeigh's intense dislike of the US government, however, their redundancy was helpful towards the end of the book when they eluded to facts previously mentioned early on. I thought this book was thoroughly readable, and was able to learn a great deal from it...even some facts that I did not know before.

People want to say that McVeigh was a psychopath. I think this book clearly shows that he was/is not. He knew exactly what he was doing, when to do it, and what the consequences would be for his actions. When someone goes as far as leaving the license plate off of his getaway vehicle in order to be caught, to me, that is proof of his sanity. McVeigh wanted to get caught so that he could further convey his political message. Americans must look beyond the tragic loss of human life to the real issue behind this act of terrorism: McVeigh's hatred and distrust of the Federal government. If one looks at the Oklahoma City bombing in light of McVeigh's political agenda for committing the crime, he greatly succeeded in accomplishing his aims. People started to pay attention to what the government was doing and making it account for any actions taken. The militia/patriot movement in this country was exposed along with the realization that there are quite a few others who agree with McVeigh's thoughts and ideas, but who aren't willing to commit violent acts of terrorism in defense of them. It is a very chilling prospect to think about, but one that exists nonetheless.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about this topic.

I could not put this book down. There were times when I forgot that I was reading a story about a man who commited mass murder. Tim was a typical boy, who failed to get help after the war, and then was just lost. The authors, allowed you to look into the mind of Tim McVeigh. It is something that so many have wanted for such a long time. To know why he did what he did. I found that I couldn't wait till the part after the bombing, I wanted to know what Tim was thinking during the trial. If anything I wish that the authors would spend more time on and after the trial. I recommend this book to anyone who wantes to really know happened on April 19, 1995 and why it happened. Like others have said, don't be afraid to read it.

Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck's, American Terrorist, is not only the most illuminating book on the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Murrah building, but stands as one of the few books about a terrorist incident where the perpetrator expounds point by point on his crime. The authors were able to spend over 78 hours interviewing McVeigh, and countless days with over 150 others regarding the bombing. McVeigh's confession is brutal in honesty and lack of remorse. I could not put this book down. Not only is it well written, but the facts of the case spill freely. There will never be another book on the OKC bombing with this much detail, or McVeigh's own words. This is a book that all in the field of counter terrorism, as well as a public who have been patiently waiting for the truth, should read.

American Terrorist is a fair and unbaised account of Timothy McVeigh and the events surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing. The authors are reporters doing a reporting job--presenting the facts--and not editors doing an editor's job--presenting opinions. The reader learns what is probabaly as close to the truth as we will get on McVeigh's actions and feelings.

In this sense, the book "undemonizes" McVeigh and helps the reader to understand why he acted as he did, while at the same time making clear the horrific nature of his deed. It is a book which I think deserves a wide reading. Most people have written him off as an evil person and have failed to make any effort to understand the root causes of his action. In hating him and ultimately killing him, we have failed to take advantage of an opportunity to examine our government and the violence and arrogance it displays regularly.

For someone like me, who was living out of the country at the time of these events, the book also was an eyeopener. McVeigh's mild submission to the police officer who arrested him on relatively minor charges was especially interesting, as was his view that his defense attorneys (especially Jones) handled the case ineptly.

Further, I found myself asking why McVeigh turned violent. One scene in the book was particularly disturbing. When McVeigh was in boot camp, the drill instructor was constantly yelling at the recruits, "kill them all, kill them all. Let God sort out the results". This, of course, is what McVeigh ultimately did. This statement has become the mentality of modern warfare with its emphasis on killing civilians. McVeigh's phrase to describe children and non-Federal employees who were killed--"collateral damage--is precisely the phrase used by the American military in Vietnam to describe the killing of Vietnamese women and children in that war. Thus violence truly begets violence. By training McVeigh to kill we created the kind of individual who would engage in such an act.

In sum, it is a largely factual book, but one which leads to thoughtful considerations on the part of the reader.

The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is one of the most horrifying acts in American history. It is hard to comprehend how anyone could willingly create such an ocean of destruction and grief. Timothy McVeigh was responsible for the bombing, and the authors of "American Terrorist" have penetrated the veil of mystery that surrounded him. Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck spent many long hours interviewing McVeigh in prison. They carried out extensive research for their book that took place over several years. The picture that emerges from their writing is often very unsettling, because it strikes so very close to home. McVeigh was not a terrorist from a foreign land, but an American. He served his country with distinction during the Desert Storm campaign, and yet he could kill more than a hundred fellow Americans with a truck bomb. This book goes into McVeigh's past, and describes much of his life. It helps us to understand how he ended up in Oklahoma City on that fateful day in 1995. There is much about Timothy McVeigh that can never be understood, but the authors have done an admirable job of looking into his mind and heart. By looking into that heart, a door is opened into an abyss. There is the hope that something good can come from that looking; something learned that might help prevent such horror in the future. The suffering and pain of the victims is very often stressed within this book. At the end of "American Terrorist", there is a section that lists the names and ages of those that were murdered in Oklahoma City. That moving list of very real people shows the actual legacy that Timothy McVeigh left for the world: a legacy of death and sorrow. Timothy McVeigh's story is a journey into the true heart of darkness.

This book gave a great insight to America's most horrific tragedy. Tim McVeigh has very complicated political beliefs that most people do not agree with. His act was in no way, shape, or form glorified in this book. It just simply made me realize what his mind is all about. This book made me cry for all of the victims, families, survivors, and citizens of Oklahoma City, but it made me realize that the government punishes death by death, and this is what McVeigh tried to radiate in the bombing. Life is sacred, yet, so easily taken. I do not feel sorry that McVeigh is sitting in jail, and I do not agree with what he has done, but the death penalty is wrong. I recommend this book for everyone to read.

This is a hard book to read, and, yet, it's hard to put down. The reader is taken on a dark journey inside the psyche of a damaged--but very American--young male mind. I was reminded often of the recent novel AMERICAN SKIN. In both books the Army Infantry Training Center at Fort Benning becomes a pivotal arena. McVeigh is sent off to the war he thirsts for, and there he is made into a sort of demigod. The effect this had on the previously shy and awkward young man was intense. Upon returning to American soil he had not lost his taste for blood, power, destruction and, one suspects, fame and glory.

Fantastic insight into the psycopathic rage of the Terrorist mentality. As for Tim's reference of the children killed as "collateral damage" that people are so disgusted by (as they should be,of course) this term actually originated with the goverment and here Tim uses it with venomous sarcasm. His horrible act was a terrible parody and mirror image of the goverment's own uglieness. Citizens upset by Tim's use of this term and his act should be no less disgusted with their own goverment's use of it and its actions which,suposedly, was the cause Tim's vengence - Ruby ridge , Waco , Desert Storm etc . Compulsive reading.