Day in and day out I go about my business, I hang out with my kids and my grandchildren, take care of the elders, I go to work, I teach and I write, I organize and I participate in the never-ending effort to build a powerful movement for peace and social justice; now and then (and unpredictably) I appear in the newspapers or on TV with a reference to my book Fugitive Days, a memoir of the revolutionary action and militant resistance to the Viet Nam War—the years of miracle and wonder—and some fantastic assertions about what I did, what I said, and what I believe. The other night, for example, I heard Sean Hannity tell Senator John McCain that I was an unrepentant terrorist who had written an article on September 11, 2001 extolling bombings against the U.S., and even advocating more terrorist bombs. Senator McCain couldn’t believe it, and neither could I.
My e-mail and my voice-mail filled up with hate, as happens, mostly men with too much time on their hands I imagined, all of them venting and sweating and breathing heavily, a few threats—“Watch out!”; “You deserve to be shot”; and from satan@hell.com, “I’m coming to get you and when I do, I’ll waterboard you”—all of it wildly uninformed. I’ve written a lot about the Viet Nam period, about politics, about schools and social justice, and I read and speak about all of it. I encourage people to argue, to agree or disagree, to discuss and struggle, to engage in conversation. I believe deeply in the pedagogical possibilities of dialogue—of listening with the possibility of being changed, and of speaking with the possibility of being heard—and I believe in revitalizing the public square, resisting the eclipse of the public and expanding the public space, searching for a more robust and participatory democracy. Talking to one another can help.
So in that spirit here is another attempt at clarity:
1. Regrets. I’m often quoted saying that I have “no regrets.” This is not true. For anyone paying attention—and I try to stay wide-awake to the world around me all/ways—life brings misgivings, doubts, uncertainty, loss, regret. I’m sometimes asked if I regret anything I did to oppose the war in Viet Nam, and I say “no, I don’t regret anything I did to try to stop the slaughter of millions of human beings by my own government.” Sometimes I add, “I don’t think I did enough.” This is then elided: he has no regrets for setting bombs and thinks there should be more bombings.
The illegal, murderous, imperial war against Viet Nam was a catastrophe for the Vietnamese, a disaster for Americans, and a world tragedy. Many of us understood this, and many tried to stop the war. Those of us who tried recognize that our efforts were inadequate: the war dragged on for a decade, thousands were slaughtered every week, and we couldn’t stop it. In the end the U.S. military was defeated and the war ended, but we surely didn’t do enough.
2. Terror. Terrorism—according to both official U.S. policy and the U.N.—is the use or threat of random violence to intimidate, frighten, or coerce a population toward some political end. This means, of course, that terrorism is not the exclusive province of a cult, a religious sect, or a group of fanatics. It can be any of these, but it can also be—and often is—executed by governments and states. A bombing in a café in Israel is terrorism, and an Israeli assault on a neighborhood in Gaza is terrorism; the September 11 attacks were acts of terrorism, and the U.S. bombings in Viet Nam for a decade were acts of terrorism. Terrorism is never justifiable, even in a just cause—the Union fight in the 1860’s was just, for example, but Shernan’s March to the Sea was indefensible terror. I’ve never advocated terrorism, never participated in it, never defended it. The U.S. government, by contrast, does it routinely and defends the use of it in its own cause consistently.
3. Imperialism. I’m against it, and if Sean Hannity and others were honest, this is the ground they would fight me on. Capitalism played its role historically and is exhausted as a force for progress: built on exploitation, theft, conquest, war, and racism, capitalism and imperialism must be defeated and a world revolution—a revolution against war and racism and materialism, a revolution based on human solidarity and love, cooperation and the common good—must win.
We begin by releasing our most hopeful dreams and our most radical imaginations: a better world is both possible and necessary. We need to bring our imaginations together and forge an unbreakable human alliance. We need to unite to transform and save ourselves as we fight to change the world and save humanity.
Bill Ayers 
Thanks for this input. I was a young girl during Viet Nam, but I remember the news every night. It gave me nightmares. I remember girlfriends big brothers being afraid that they might have to go. I remember girlfriends whose brothers did not come back. By the end of the war I was a teenager ready to enter HS. I remember America’s shame at that war. I remember never being taught about the Viet Nam war in school. I remember the way the vets were treated. This was not our war.
Today I have 2 sons who have served in Enduring Freedom. By the grace of God they have both come home to me. However, they both fight for their veteran benefits. One is fighting for his GI bill – he served 6 years. This is not our war. Our shame only hinted at will be great when we finally do “have” to leave. Our shame will be at the way we have left the innocent.
Anyway, I don’t believe in bombing and I had a friend who died in the WTC. But I believe we were put here to love one another and not judge one another.
Peace Mr. Ayers
Nice to read your account of these events, and to see again that spark of idealism that illuminated parts of the 60’s and 70’s. I too have held onto my hope- I have a copy of the Port Huron Declaration in my attache case, which goes with me wherever I go.
Few have ever heard of it.
Few have escaped the profaning of history that has erased so much from that time.
But I was there, and I remember.
bill,there is one problem you have have and that is your beliefs are in direct oppostionto the u.s. constitution,under whose princples the greatest country in the history of the world has come into being. your call for a socialist state has an obvious record of failure. now you leftists are using global warming to try to take over. if you succed millions more will be eliminated in the name of “the common good.” expect a fight traitor.
I wish the worst for you and your family. I hope you all rot in hell.
Robert,
SHUT UP! We HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME. IT WAS STUPID THEN AS IT IS NOW.
WHY DO YOU THINK! NO MAJOR ALLY JOINED US IN THE WAR IN IRAQ EXCEPT
PRIME MINISTER BLAIR?
BECAUSE WE WERE WRONG FOR GOING THERE? DO YOUR RESEARCH! LEARN YOUR HISTORY!
GEEZ>>>>>
Thank you for clearing up the issues that the media has been trying to use to dominate this primary season. Sean Hannity and the ABC tabloid lynching party are a disgrace to the American public.
I am also a product of the 60’s and remember Vietnam clearly: every night on the news the count of the number of American soldiers killed THAT DAY would be at the bottom of the TV screen. I remember sitting with my friends watching the draft lottery and praying that none of their draft numbers were selected. Then crying for the young men that were selected to be sent to Vietnam to be slaughtered and to slaughter in the name of FREEDOM and LIBERTY. In addition, I remember clearly my friends returning from Vietnem and how messed up they were from the acts they seen and were forced to be a part of. Some of them have never recovered: their innocent teenage years stolen from them like a pedofile steals all good from a child changing their life forever. I remember burying people I loved because they were the unlucky ones to have been selected and forced to go to Vietnam. I remember the RICH and ELITE being able to avoid being selected : only the poor had to pay the price. So when people express their negative opinion on the protest of Vietnam I say to them unless you lived in the time and walked in the shoes of a soldier or someone who loved that soldier you have no right to judge. Futhermore, to those whom I know will look at this post negatively calling me unpatriotic I say to them research the facts there was NOTHING patriotic and democratic about Vietnam.
“Capitalism played its role historically and is exhausted as a force for progress: built on exploitation, theft, conquest, war, and racism”
Huh? That statement would be laughable if it were not so pathetically and willfully ignorant. Compare pre-Mugabe versus post-Mugabe or North versus South Korea or Hong Kong versus China or pre-Thatcher versus post-Thatcher or US health care versus Britsh health care or a Mercedes versus a Trabant. At least in the 1960’s it was excusable to be a leftist because of what we didn’t know. We now know that 90 million people died under communist rule. Communism is what is exhausted.
Under the Soviet system of justice you would have been executed for your crimes and there would be no getting off on a technicality.
You can’t hug your children with nuclear arms.
What kind of fantasy world do you live in Mr. Ayers? Obviously academia, a world where you don’t have to compete for your daily bread. How many coporate donors provide funds for your institution? Sorry folks but competition has been the way of the world since the begining of time. All animals (including we humans) have been fighting each other for our livelyhoods forever. GET OVER IT! The fact is that we live in the kindest, most compasionate nation in the history of the world. If you really dislike it so much here then why don’t you move to France?
No matter how you try to spin it, Billy you’re still a fucking scumbag along with that wife of yours.
BTW Billy, why didn’t you get upset when the VC were cutting off the heads of villagers who refused to join their cause? Or when the communists in the region began their program of mass murder when the American military left the region.
Yeah, not a word from Billy and his ilk. That is because Billy is an enemy of America. Always was and apparently always will be. Disgraceful swine!!!