Editing Weather Underground (section)

===Greenwich Village townhouse explosion===
{{Main|Greenwich Village townhouse explosion}}

Weather Underground members [[Diana Oughton]], [[Ted Gold]], [[Terry Robbins]], [[Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson|Cathy Wilkerson]], and [[Kathy Boudin]] were making bombs in a [[Greenwich Village]] townhouse on March 6, 1970, when one of the bombs detonated. Oughton, Gold, and Robbins were killed; Wilkerson and Boudin escaped unharmed.

These bombs were made to target a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) dance at [[Fort Dix]], which would be attended by non-commissioned officers and their companions, as well as [[Butler Library]] at Columbia University.<ref name="djwnyt82403" /> An FBI report stated that they had enough explosives to "level&nbsp;... both sides of the street".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/10/arts/my-manhattan-this-side-of-heaven-please-in-the-village.html|title=My Manhattan; This Side of Heaven, Please, in the Village|author=Michael Frank|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 10, 2002 |access-date=July 22, 2018}}</ref>  Weather Underground leadership members Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and Jeff Jones claimed the planned bombings of the Fort Dix NCO dance and Columbia University building were a rogue operation led by more extreme Greenwich Village townhouse residents, Ayers singling out Terry Robbins.<ref  name="ArthurEckstein1" /><ref name="NPR-interview-Burrough" /> However, later researchers concluded Weather Underground leaders planned and approved the bombings of an NCO dance, a Columbia University building, and several bombings in Detroit which were defused by the Detroit Police aided by informant [[Larry Grathwohl]].<ref  name="ArthurEckstein1">{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFVORAsspf8&t=1315|time=22:00|author=Arthur Eckstein|publisher=WoodrowWilsonCenter|website=www.youtube.com|date=2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230603234320/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFVORAsspf8|archive-date=2023-06-03|url-status=live|title=The Way the Wind Actually Blew: Weatherman Underground Terrorism and the Counterculture, 1969–1971}}</ref><ref  name="ArthurEckstein2">{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFVORAsspf8&t=2181|time=36:00|author=Arthur Eckstein|publisher=WoodrowWilsonCenter|website=www.youtube.com|date=2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230603234320/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFVORAsspf8|archive-date=2023-06-03|url-status=live|title=The Way the Wind Actually Blew: Weatherman Underground Terrorism and the Counterculture, 1969–1971}}</ref><ref name="NPR-interview-Burrough">{{cite interview  | url=https://www.npr.org/2015/04/05/396359930/explosive-protests-u-s-bombings-during-days-of-rage | publisher=NPR | title=Explosive Protests: U.S. Bombings During 'Days Of Rage' | date=April 5, 2015 | interviewer=NPR Staff | subject= Bryan Burrough | archive-url=https://archive.today/20230604213721/https://www.npr.org/2015/04/05/396359930/explosive-protests-u-s-bombings-during-days-of-rage |archive-date=2023-06-04 | url-status=live | quote=Especially when you look at the Weather Underground the myth has arisen, largely propagated by alumni of the Weather Underground, that they never intended to hurt a soul; that they only bombed ... symbols of American power. In fact I think I show persuasively through on-the-record interviews with former Weatherman leaders that the first 90 days up until that explosion, it's very clear now that they had intended to kill – not just anyone, but their intent was to kill policemen.}}</ref>

The site of the Village explosion was the former residence of [[Charles E. Merrill|Charles Merrill]], co-founder of the [[Merrill Lynch]] brokerage firm, and the childhood home of his son [[James Merrill]]. James Merrill memorialized the event in his poem ''18 West 11th Street'', the address of the brownstone townhouse.<ref name="GussowHouse">{{cite news|author=Mel Gussow|url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E4DB1638F936A35750C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title= The House On West 11th Street|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 5, 2005|access-date=April 24, 2013}}</ref>

====Underground strategy change====

After the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, per the December 1969 [[Flint War Council]] decisions the group was now well underground, and began to refer to themselves as the Weather Underground Organization. At this juncture, WUO shrank considerably, becoming even fewer than they had been when first formed. The group was devastated by the loss of their friends, and in late April 1970, members of the Weathermen met in California to discuss what had happened in New York and the future of the organization.

In 2003, Weather Underground members stated in interviews that they had wanted to convince the American public that the United States was truly responsible for the calamity in [[Vietnam]].<ref name="The Weather Underground"/> The group began striking at night, bombing empty offices, with warnings always issued in advance to ensure a safe evacuation. According to [[David Gilbert (activist)|David Gilbert]], who took part in the [[Brink's robbery (1981)|1981 Brink's robbery]] that killed two police officers and a Brink's guard, and was jailed for murder, "[their] goal was to not hurt any people, and a lot of work went into that. But we wanted to pick targets that showed to the public who was responsible for what was really going on."<ref name="The Weather Underground"/> After the Greenwich Village explosion, in a review of the documentary film ''[[The Weather Underground (film)|The Weather Underground]]'' (2002), a ''[[The Guardian|Guardian]]'' journalist restated the film's contention that no one was killed by WUO bombs.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{cite web|url=http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,990399,00.html|title=All the rage|author=John Patterson|work=The Guardian|date=July 4, 2003|access-date=February 15, 2015}}</ref>

{{blockquote|We were very careful from the moment of the townhouse on to be sure we weren't going to hurt anybody, and we never did hurt anybody. Whenever we put a bomb in a public space, we had figured out all kinds of ways to put checks and balances on the thing and also to get people away from it, and we were remarkably successful.|[[Bill Ayers]], 2003<ref name="The Weather Underground"/>}}