Waco & the Origins of Right-Wing Extremism

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This year marks 30 years since the 1993 siege at Waco. Lasting 51 days, it took the lives of 76 people, including 25 children and has gone down as one of the most controversial and tragic incidents in modern American history.

James Rogers sits down with author Stephan Talty to discuss his new book "Koresh: The True Story of David Koresh and the Tragedy at Waco", which delves into the life of David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidians, and the events leading up to the siege. Together, they explore Koresh's abusive childhood, his religious beliefs, and the socio-political factors that led to the deadly standoff with federal agents.

The Senior Producer was Elena Guthrie. It was edited by Annie Coloe.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Waco, Texas is a small city of around 140,000 people.
0:04.4	It sits midway between Dallas and Austin,
0:07.0	and you may have seen it in the news recently
0:08.7	as the venue for one of former President Donald Trump's first campaign rallies for the 2024 election.
0:15.0	It was here that he declared to thousands, I am your warrior, I am your justice.
0:20.7	But why Waco?
0:21.7	Well, 30 years ago this month the infamous Waco siege ended in a gunfight with federal agents and a burning inferno that killed 70.
0:30.0	For some, like the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, it was an inspirational moment, one that would push him to commit the largest fundamental far-right terrorist attack that the US has ever seen.
0:42.0	I'm your host, James Patton Rogers. This is warfare and to tell
0:45.1	us more about Waco, I've invited award-winning author and historian Stephen Teltie onto the
0:50.1	podcast. Stephen is the author of a new book, Koreh, The True Story of David Correcht. to the headlines to understand who was involved and why the Siege at Waco ever took place.
1:07.0	Hi Stephen, welcome to Warfare. How are you doing today? Are you well?
1:12.0	I'm good. It's great to be here. Well, it is great to have you on the
1:15.7	podcast and today we're going to focus in on a very controversial topic and perhaps one that is an era
1:21.9	defining moment in the domestic politics of the United States.
1:25.9	The Waco Siege in Waco, Texas in 1993, something that I teach to my students at university as part of our history of terrorism and counter-terrorism
1:35.6	as a result of the fact that it was the Waco siege that inspired Timothy McVeigh
1:40.2	to undertake the Oklahoma bombings in 1995, but that's something that we are going to get to
1:45.4	Stephen perhaps take us back to the beginning here tell us about the siege at Waco how did it
1:51.6	begin who was involved? Sure. So on February 28th 1993
1:56.5	the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, raided the compound of David Kerech and his branch
2:04.4	Dominion followers. So there were about a hundred people held up in this huge
	...

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