Star Trek and History (24 page)

Finn:
This is a war for independence, and I am no better or different than your own George Washington.

Crusher:
Washington was a military general, not a terrorist.

Finn:
The difference between generals and terrorists is only the difference between winners and losers. If you win you are called a general, if you lose . . .

Crusher:
You are killing innocent people!

Writers also use the character of Data to challenge Picard's rejection of terrorism as a valid vehicle to achieve freedom. While Data comments on the historical evidence of terrorism as an effective strategy, Picard responds, “Yes, it can be. But I have never subscribed to the idea that political power flows from the barrel of a gun” (
TNG
, “The High Ground”). After Finn captures Picard, a rescue mission ends the hostage crisis, resulting in Finn's death, and the Rutian leader declares that Finn is now a martyr to the Ansatan cause.

“The High Ground” marked
Star Trek
's initial examination of terrorism by encouraging viewers to understand the positions of all of those involved. But
Next Generation
's producers were somewhat disappointed in the final product, believing that the episode had nothing meaningful to say about terrorism.
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However, the ambivalence of this episode largely mirrored the mixed feelings that Americans had toward international terrorism in the early 1990s. Like the Federation, American leaders were reluctant to get directly involved in disputes that plagued the Middle East in the 1980s. When Riker wonders why the Ansata would choose to take a Federation officer when their fight did not involve the Federation, Worf responded, “It does now” (
TNG
, “The High Ground”). To the American public, the seizure of hostages and the bombing of public spaces occurred elsewhere in the world and did not directly involve the United States. Paralleling Finn's suggestion about the Federation, Americans could not fathom that the presence of U.S. troops in places such as Lebanon or the United States' long interference in the Middle East did in fact mean that they were, as Worf noted, embroiled in the fight.

Two seasons later
Next Generation
again addressed terrorism in an episode that introduced viewers to the Bajorans, who later became central to the story line of
Deep Space Nine
. In “Ensign Ro,” the
Enterprise
responds to a terrorist attack on a Federation outpost on Solarion IV. Orta, the militant leader claiming to represent the Bajorans, claims responsibility for the attack as part of a campaign to regain his home planet after the Cardassians forced them to flee it. Starfleet vice admiral Kennelly orders Picard to find Orta and offer him amnesty in return for negotiating peace with the Cardassians. Kennelly assigns Ensign Ro Laren, a troubled Bajoran member of Starfleet, to assist Picard on this delicate mission.

Despite reservations about Ro's loyalty, Picard allows her to help convince Orta to accept Starfleet's offer. When Picard confronts Ro after she makes contact with Orta without his permission, she confides to Picard that Admiral Kennelly is using her as part of a secret plan to offer weapons to the Bajorans in exchange for ending terrorist attacks on the Federation. Incredulous that Starfleet command would engage in such nefarious deeds, Picard later learns that Orta did not attack the Federation outpost. Rather, as Picard suspected, the Cardassians attacked the colony in an attempt to swing the Federation to their side. Picard then crafts a plan to defend Orta's innocence and to expose Kennelly's role in the conspiracy. When the admiral learns that Picard protected Orta and the Bajorans, he declares, “They're terrorists, dammit. Why in the hell would you want to protect them?” (
TNG
, “Ensign Ro”) Picard responds that protecting the honor and integrity of Starfleet is paramount.

Like “The High Ground,” this episode compels viewers to understand the roots of a particular group of terrorists' beliefs and convictions. Picard, for example, praises the Bajorans' rich history and cultural contributions, while viewers see the rather bleak camps in which the Bajorans are now forced to live. Moreover, “Ensign Ro” examines the unwillingness of outsiders to intercede in such conflicts, in this case blaming the Federation for ignoring the Bajorans' predicament. When Picard explains that the Federation regretted what the Cardassians did to the Bajorans, a Bajoran leader named Keeve says, “And the Federation is pledged not to interfere with the internal affairs of others. How convenient that must be for you. To turn a deaf ear to those who suffer behind a line on a map” (
TNG
, “Ensign Ro”).

By implicating Starfleet command in this conspiracy,
Star Trek
creators remind American viewers that they should consider their own government's recent actions. Just a few short years earlier, the American public learned of the Reagan administration's secret effort to trade arms for hostages in the Iran-contra scandal. An Islamist group in Lebanon, which had close ties to the Iranian government, was holding six Americans as hostages. At the same time, the Reagan administration wished to fund the Nicaraguan contras, a terrorist group within Nicaragua that American conservatives wished to support; giving funds to such terrorists was illegal under American law, however. Oliver North and other administration officials secretly and illegally sought to buy the freedom of American hostages and to obtain funding for the contras by supplying weapons to Iran (which was illegal at the time); in return, the Iranians were supposed to use their influence to get the American hostages in Lebanon released, and the money that the Iranians paid for the U.S. weapons would be funneled to the contras. Similarly, in the
Next Generation
episode renegades within Starfleet attempt to negotiate with the terrorists, or with those who they thought were terrorists, rather than embroil the Federation in the conflict.

When
Deep Space Nine
premiered in 1993 two years after Gene Roddenberry's death, producers chose to portray a darker and more complex world, in contrast to
Next Generation
's optimistic outlook.
Deep Space Nine
depicts a sympathetic Bajoran society that engages in terrorism to resist the Cardassian occupation of its home world. As the series proceeds, viewers learn about Bajor's tragic past through the personal struggles of Major Kira Nerys, and in doing so, viewers encounter a more knotty example of terrorism. At first, the Federation appears as a mere bystander that is indirectly affected by terrorism, but as the series evolves the Federation becomes increasingly enmeshed in the terrorist activities of other species as well as its own citizens.

In one of the series' first terrorism episodes, “Past Prologue,” Commander Sisko rescues Tahna, a friend of Major Kira's. Kira had known Tahna in the past, when Kira, too, was active in the Bajoran underground. In pursuit of Tahna, the Cardassians hail Sisko and demand that he turn Tahna over to them, claiming that Tahna is a member of a Bajoran terrorist group called the Khon-Ma. Tahna, however, renounces terrorism and requests asylum, and thanks to Kira's impassioned plea to a wary Sisko, Tahna receives it. Kira later learns that Tahna is still a member of the Khon-Ma, and he begs her to help him to win Bajor's freedom. As the plot develops, Kira discovers that Tahna really plans to blow up the wormhole and thus make Bajor less desirable to both the Cardassians and the Federation. Kira foils this plan, but she wonders whether she actually helped or betrayed her people.

“Past Prologue” plays on the natural sympathy for the Bajorans as victims of the aggressive and brutal Cardassians to address the ambiguous nature of terrorism. Viewers are left to decide whether Tahna is a freedom fighter or a terrorist. Kira gives voice to this dilemma when she explains to Odo: “They're no different than I used to be. . . . It was so much easier when I knew who the enemy was” (
DS9
, “Past Prologue”). Yet in the end Kira exposes Tahna's plan, explaining to him that the old ways do not work anymore.

In these episodes,
Star Trek
writers continued to portray terrorism as a dilemma that largely affects other species, and they showed the Federation as attempting to remain above the fray while trying to escape these conflicts' impacts. This indirect relationship with terrorism in many ways mirrored the American public's mind-set during the early 1990s. More often than not Americans believed that terrorism involved other nations mostly located in Europe and the Middle East. Yet, as a global power, the United States could not escape overseas conflicts where terrorist tactics were used to achieve certain political goals. No doubt American intervention in the Middle East contributed greatly to these distant conflicts. In 1979, for example, Iranian students seized fifty-three American hostages in Tehran, holding them for 444 days in response to the Carter administration's decision to permit the despised exiled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi access to American medical care. This is the same ruler who had assumed power in 1953 as a result of a CIA-organized coup in Iran. Similarly, a few years later, American soldiers, stationed in Lebanon by President Reagan to help influence an ongoing civil war in that country, became targets in the 1983 bloody bombing of the U.S. marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241. Like Starfleet, Americans found it nearly impossible to appear as a disinterested or neutral party.

Late in its second season, the two-part
Deep Space Nine
episode “The Maquis” marked a shift in
Star Trek
's depiction of terrorism: instead of showing the Federation and Starfleet as innocent bystanders, now they were increasingly portrayed as the targets of a home-grown terrorist group called the Maquis. The Maquis are Federation-born colonists who fight the Cardassian occupation of their homes in the Demilitarized Zone after their colonies were ceded by the Federation to the Cardassian Union in the Treaty of 2370. Starfleet Command considers the Maquis to be traitors, while Cardassian officials proclaim them to be terrorists. When the Cardassian freighter
Bok'Nor
explodes while departing Deep Space Nine, Lt. Dax determines that an implosive device placed aboard the ship caused its destruction. Federation officials, worried how this will affect their colonies in the newly established Demilitarized Zone, dispatch to Deep Space Nine Lt. Commander Cal Hudson—an old friend of Sisko's who serves as Starfleet's attaché to the colonies—to mediate the brewing conflict. Hudson explains to Sisko that the colonists, who now suddenly live in Cardassian territory due to the treaty, feel abandoned by the Federation. The introduction of the Maquis would significantly enrich the Bajor-Cardassia terrorist back history of the
Deep Space Nine
series.
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When Gul Evek, the Cardassian attaché for the Demilitarized Zone, accuses Federation colonists of “organized terrorist activities” against the Cardassians, Sisko replies that “the Federation does not conduct secret wars” (
DS9
, “The Maquis, Part 1”). Evek then produces a coerced confession from a Federation citizen who admits responsibility for bombing the
Bok'Nor
. Hudson quickly proclaims the Federation colonists' right to defend themselves against Cardassian oppression. Major Kira likewise expresses sympathy for the Maquis, telling Sisko that the “Cardassians are the enemy, not your own colonists” (
DS9
, “The Maquis, Part 1”).

The episode then takes an unexpected turn when Hudson tells Sisko he is leaving Starfleet to work with the rebels because he believes Cardassia is violating the Federation treaty by smuggling weapons into the Demilitarized Zone. To end this conflict, Sisko joins with his Cardassian nemesis, Gul Dukat, to stop both the Cardassian smuggling and the Maquis attacks after Dukat realizes that Cardassian Central Command was involved in smuggling and was willing to lay blame at Dukat's feet. The two-part episode culminates when Sisko prevents a Maquis attack on a Cardassian weapons depot, but in doing so he lets Hudson escape. When Kira congratulates Sisko on his success at stopping a war, he wearily responds, “Did I? Or did I just delay the inevitable?” (
DS9
, “The Maquis, Part 1”)

The Maquis story line allowed
Star Trek
's creative staff to explore the thorny complexity of terrorism, including the role of third-party supporters and the emerging right-wing domestic terrorism within the United States. A subplot of “The Maquis” episode involved outside groups aiding
both
sides of the Cardassian-Maquis conflict. Sisko and Gul Dukat, for example, discover that another party transported weapons for the Cardassians. More intriguing were the efforts of a Vulcan woman named Sakonna, who attempted to buy black-market weapons from Quark on behalf of the Maquis. Since viewers often equated Vulcans with pacifism, Sakonna's actions further complicated
Star Trek
's portrayal of terrorism. Writers did not have to look far for this plot, since by the 1990s Americans were well aware that outside parties helped to arm terrorist groups, whether it was Iran's support for Hezbollah in Lebanon or Irish-American support for the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.

Terrorism by Federation colonists, however, also reflected the growing threat of domestic terrorism the United States experienced during the 1990s. By the time “The Maquis” was broadcast in 1994, Americans had witnessed bloody clashes between federal government officials and right-wing extremist groups. From the shoot-out between white supremacist Randy Weaver and the federal agents at Ruby Ridge in 1992 to the tragic conflict between the apocalyptic Branch Davidians and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms the following year in Waco, Texas, the American public discovered firsthand the right-wing militia movement that had surfaced by the early 1990s. Like the Maquis, such extremist groups felt abandoned, if not threatened, by an expanding powerful federal government that to some seemed to have ceded American independence to a global New World Order best exemplified by the United Nations. Even Commander Sisko expressed an understanding of the Maquis' feelings when a Starfleet admiral told him to just talk to the Maquis: