Mount Carmel Center and the Waco Siege - Essay Example

?Introduction Although there have been perhaps bigger tragedies in the recent history of the United s, one of the most interesting and shocking is that of the Waco siege in 1993. In an attack, and subsequently deadly fire, 76 people died at the home of a religious sect known as the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Although the group at Waco had been a matter of controversy for some time, the Waco siege itself began when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms investigated the Mount Carmel Center on the idea that the group were misusing weapons illegally. As a response to this, the group opened fire on the investigators, leading to the FBI initiating the eventual siege that led to the deaths of many people and made the headlines around the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore the incident using primary sources as a way of identifying the incident from the perspective of those contemporary to the siege. Primary sources can be useful to historians as they can limit the amount of bias found when relying on secondary texts or unreliable historical sources. Whilst analyzing the events of the Waco siege, this paper will therefore examine the primary sources pertinent to the event to show the importance of primary sources, especially for recent historical events. Overview of Events On May 3, 1993, David Koresh was on the cover of Time Magazine (Time, 1993). The reason for this is that he was the leader of a religious organization known as the Branch Davidians, who self-identified as a Christian group linked to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Although the group itself gained some interest in the early 1950s (Reavis, 1998), a series of leadership changes had meant that Koresh himself was now in charge of the group. The organization itself mainly centered around a compound-style property in Waco, Texas (Reavis, 1998), which had little contact with the outside world except for daily activities (Reavis, 1998). This compound, known as the Mount Carmel Center, was to be the stage for the events of the Waco siege. As with many new religions, as the Branch Davidians grew in size there was increasing media interest in the group (Reavis, 1998). Additionally, the leader David Koresh had been investigated by some news articles which accused him of physical abuse and statutory rape (Reavis, 1998), which lead to yet more media interest in the group and their leader. Many sources also suggest that Koresh advocated polygamy and therefore was breaking the law of Texas at the time, despite his religious beliefs (Reavis, 1998). Despite these various crimes, the real interest of the event to the police was the potential that Koresh and his followers were stockpiling illegal weapons, hence the involvement of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF). Several pieces of evidence suggested that this was the case, meaning that Koresh had violated federal law and arrest and search warrants could be placed on various members of the group by the FBI. This search warrant led the ATF to instigate a search of the compound to find these illegal weapons, only to result in gunfire that left ten people dead (Reavis, 1998). After this moment, the FBI began to get more heavily involved due to the failure of the ATS to complete their siege. Although the decision was made to seriously investigate the compound, there was a stand-off between Branch Davidians and the FBI that lasted 51 days in total. After increasing tensions, the FBI launched a tear gas attack on the compound, only to result in a fire that was later declared to have been started by the Branch Davidians themselves. The Branch Davidians: Oh, My God, They're Killing Themselves! Some of the most interesting and useful sources for learning about the Waco siege are primary sources written at the time of the event, many of which are online and easily accessed. One of these is an article written for Time magazine, published on May 3rd 1993, shortly after the events that killed the Branch Davidians. The article itself is extremely descriptive about the events of the siege, and includes quotes from those actually at the event who were not killed in the fire. This source seems particularly useful as a historian as it allows us to learn about the events of the Waco siege without all of the subsequent conspiracy theories and blaming of the FBI. It is also useful to hear about the fear and the terror experienced by those involved in the Waco siege, and the article itself gives a more human note to the proceedings which is not present on some news reports. The element of using quotes from the FBI and discussing claims that the FBI themselves started the fire means that the information in the source (and the words spoken by witnesses) must be taken carefully, as it could be victim of some bias, but would allow a historian to know the real people-based value of the event. The fact that the article was in Time magazine is interesting, because it shows that the Waco siege was interesting to those involved in news and politics at the time, rather than it being an event that gained historical significance after the event. The intended audience for Time magazine is those who are adult, any gender, and interested in current affairs, which suggests that the article itself needs to be factual and present the information as truthfully as possible, making it a reliable source for historians or those wanting to know a contemporary perspective on the event. The purpose of the piece itself seems mixed, as there is a lot of emphasis on the FBI’s potential involvement in the fire and trying to justify the events as being Koresh’s fault. This suggests that the Time piece was partially published with the aim of informing the general public that the FBI was not to blame for the events at Waco. Additionally, the factual nature of the piece suggests that the article was written to inform an intended audience. The Time article is interesting because it refers to an event which is easily considered to be modern history, but one which has captured the public imagination on a scale it can be hard to ascertain the truth behind the story. Although the description given by the article matches up what I have learnt about the events at Waco from textbooks and secondary source and outlined above, many of the eyewitness testimonies of the event go beyond what I already knew. In this sense, it adds a human dimension to our understanding of the Waco siege, as well as helping us to understand further how the events unfolded from an outsider’s perspective. One thing that would be perhaps more useful for a historian would be knowledge from the inside of the Waco compound, but this has not been added to the Time article. I think perhaps the most important thing for understanding Waco which is described by the article is the reason why Koresh did not want to leave the compound (and thus a fire may be the best way for him to exit the compound) – ‘'' Negotiators had learned that Koresh had a particular dread of jail, a fear of being raped. ``He had all the wives, food and liquor he wanted,'' Coulson says. ``Inside, he's God. Outside, he's an inmate on trial for his life. What was he going to do?''’ (Gibbs &Riley, 1993, p27). This says much more about the events at Waco than any textbook, and gives insight as to how the tragedy could have occurred. Waco CNN Live Coverage Another important source of information for historians is TV broadcasts about the event, if available. As the Waco siege had a huge amount of build up with tensions heightening for some time prior to the fire, CNN and other news broadcasters were already interested in the events and how they would unfold. The live CNN coverage of the event is useful because information is being relayed about the events as they unfold, giving little time for interpretation or bias of the information. Additionally, it gives an insight into exactly how the events unfolded. As CNN is an important news channel, the intended audience is extremely wide, which means that information has to be accessible for many types of viewer. Additionally, viewers will be watching the broadcast with the hopes of learning about the facts of Waco, which again leaves little room for interpretation, hopefully giving an extremely good source of facts. Watching the CNN live coverage of the events is interesting because it allows us to know a lot of specific information about the events at Waco that many secondary sources omit. For example, we learn that the local police were not on stand-by at the time and therefore had to be recruited when the fire started. It took them eight to ten minutes to arrive at the scene after the events got out of hand. Additionally, a former FBI operations agent was on the phone during the live coverage and said that he could not confirm that the non-lethal tear gas was not the source of the fire, which is interesting as the FBI deny any involvement in the fire itself that killed the people in the compound. Additionally, although many sources state that it was a windy day during the events, the CNN live coverage shows the extent of the wind and the effect that it had on the fire. Visual sources such as news coverage allow us to visually examine the evidence for ourselves without having to rely on a secondary source which may be less accurate. Additionally, the tension about the ammunition during the fire is audible in the reporter’s voices, and we learn that they had to stay further away from the fire because of this. Evidently, the fire was difficult to report on as the events unfolded so quickly despite the long stand-off between Koresh and the FBI and this adds a level of tension that cannot be reported in a textbook. Overall, the CNN broadcast does add to our understanding of the events in a number of ways, and allows us to judge for ourselves how they unfolded. Although the textbook description of the events does match what occurred on the CNN broadcast, I learnt a number of things about how the event felt for someone who was present. It also added to my understanding of the speed of the events, as timelines can be found from secondary sources but it is hard to imagine without actually seeing the events live. Additionally, it is highly improbable that the live coverage was edited or amended to add bias, which makes live broadcasts like this an important source of information for historians. It also shows the importance of TV and live reporting to historical learning, which is not available for many events before World War II but helpfully add to our understanding when considering modern U.S. history. Conclusions Overall, the events of Waco were evidently tragic and the FBI involvement has been questioned a number of times, which makes it important to use primary sources when learning about the events. Luckily, as the Waco siege only occurred in 1993, there is a lot of information available from primary sources on the internet, which make it easy for historians to understand the magnitude of the siege from a contemporary perspective. A lot of information from those who were there at the scene was available from the Time article, which added a human perspective to the events. This source comes from a widely-respected magazine and therefore is a fairly trustworthy source of information. Additionally, it provides a lot of emphasis on the FBI not being involved in the fire that killed the Davidians, which is interesting from a later perspective as the FBI have been implicated in the events several times. The CNN live broadcast is perhaps more useful because we can watch the events unfold and learn a lot about the concerns of people in Waco at the time of the fire. For example, we know that the FBI was not expecting it to get out of hand because local police were not on stand-by, and we can see the strength of the wind that day. It also provides information without bias about possible FBI involvement, which is hard to find in secondary sources which may focus on the interpretation of this aspect of the Waco siege. Sources Gibbs, Nancy. “The Branch Davidians: Oh, My God, They’re Killing Themselves!” Time 3 May 1993. www.time.com. Web. 20 May 2013. Reavis, Dick J. The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation. Syracuse University Press, 1998. Print. Waco CNN Live Coverage - Part 1. 1993. Film. 20 May 2013 Read More