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Rating: 
Summary: RADS: the controversy
Review: Anyone having a hard time understanding the Littleton, CO killers should read this book. Bates is specifically investigating the radical culture of revolutionary wannabe's in the '60's, but the tragedy of overheated rhetoric, of turning the personal into the political and of drawing on pop images of heroism for models of action explains all too many tragedies in the modern world.Karl and Dwight Armstrong are the local losers who decide that injustice and oppression demand direct action, and their story provides more than enough drama to stir MY heart! This is a must-read. Another good book on the '60's radical scene from a mature perspective is Tom Hayden's book, Reunion.
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Summary: My hometown Madison
Review: I lived in Madison at the time of the legal procedings of the three captured bombers. Rads is the most comprehensive account of the bombing that I have personally read. However, I agree with a previous review that Bates mistakingly attributes Armstrong's actions to his family history. I believe that Armstrong was motivated personally from his experiences in Chicago during the 1968 convention, and seeing the escallation of the war. I went to the Madison Public Library and read the newspaper files on Armstrong and the others, and there were important events especially after Armstrong's return to Madison that were ommited. I believe that the single most important lesson from this book or from other events of that era i.e. Kent State, is that it was local people, hometown people that were involved in the anti-war movement. These people included both yound and old. They were not communist-sympathizers or professionals from out of town. Young men from Karl and Dwight Armstrong's east-side Madison neighborhood were much more likely to fight and die in Vietnam than men from David Fine's or Leo Burt's background. True, Fine did not light the fuse, but he got off much eaiser than the Armstrongs
Rating:
Summary: My hometown Madison
Review: I lived in Madison at the time of the legal procedings of the three captured bombers. Rads is the most comprehensive account of the bombing that I have personally read. However, I agree with a previous review that Bates mistakingly attributes Armstrong's actions to his family history. I believe that Armstrong was motivated personally from his experiences in Chicago during the 1968 convention, and seeing the escallation of the war. I went to the Madison Public Library and read the newspaper files on Armstrong and the others, and there were important events especially after Armstrong's return to Madison that were ommited. I believe that the single most important lesson from this book or from other events of that era i.e. Kent State, is that it was local people, hometown people that were involved in the anti-war movement. These people included both yound and old. They were not communist-sympathizers or professionals from out of town. Young men from Karl and Dwight Armstrong's east-side Madison neighborhood were much more likely to fight and die in Vietnam than men from David Fine's or Leo Burt's background. True, Fine did not light the fuse, but he got off much eaiser than the Armstrongs
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Summary: Such details...
Review: I read this about five years ago after finding it as a remainder in a supermarket. What I recollect most about it was the uncanny detail the author came up with. In fact, it reminded me somewhat of at least one of Halberstram's books in that such detail MUST have been contrived. So, while well-written, there were some credibility problems. To this day, I'm not absolutely sure where I stand on the bombing. I would recommend it, though, as NOT romanticizing the radical left of that era. There are, of course, some from that time still living in Madison (and Berkeley, and Stanford, and...) reminiscing the period. They're kind of a radical 60s equivalent of the VFW and are just too naive to realize in how much of an Ivory Tower they reside . But there were down sides, not the least of which is graduate students whose entire careers were altered, finished because of this bombing.
Rating: 
Summary: Rads really is a true story of the 60's
Review: There are many accounts of the sixties which romanticize the activism against the war in Vietnam. RADS provides a sober account of the events surrounding the bombing of the Army Math Research Center in 1970. With the meticulous insight of an historian, Bates provides an overview of the events relating to the bombing without the bias of left or right-wing ideology. His riveting account has the ring of journalistic accuracy rather than stooping to advance a particular political point of view.
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Summary: RADS: A Powerful True Story of the "End of the Sixties"
Review: Tom Bates presents the bombing of the AMRC within an intriguing, captivating story. As a high school senior, I have not lived through the war and the anti-war movement. Nonetheless, RADS provided me with enough background information to understand the book (based around the bombing) on both the specific level and the larger scheme of things. Bates introduces the 'romantic' appeal of political radicalism in the late 60s and early 70s logically and insightfully. In addition, throughout the book, the reader gets to know the bombers and the people with whom they interact. The book does not include any extraneous chapters. Bates has a reason for every section of the book that he includes. Because of this, the book is never slow to read; much of the book is very suspenseful, set up by the well-chosen quotes that begin every chapter. This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in radicalism, historic bombings, or the anti-war movement of the 60s and 70s.
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