The Munich Massacre and its Legacy

This assignment delves into the horrific events of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, examining the attack by Palestinian terrorists, the Israeli response (Operation Wrath of God), and the long-term implications for both the Olympic Games and international relations. Students are tasked with analyzing primary and secondary sources to understand the complex political landscape surrounding the event, including the Cold War tensions, rising global terrorism, and evolving ideas about state sovereignty.

Running head: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note:

1RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
Politics by nature tends to interfere in every aspect of humanity. Politics was meant to
govern the citizens of a particular area for their maximum well-being1. However, things have
changed lately. In modern times, politics is all about acquiring power and holding unto it at
any cost. Every country has its own political scenarios and dominant ideologies. As
examples, we can talk about the Communist dominant ideology that governs China2, or the
Liberal ideology that is predominant in United States of America or the United Kingdom.
Any international event organised and conducted in a particular country is impacted by the
dominant political ideology of the host nation. This has been proved and reiterated by various
events throughout the world.
The most evident proof of this is found in the Olympics, which is probably the
world’s largest event to be organised and conducted3. This event is considered as the planets
largest sports even where most of the countries around the world participates. The present
number of countries participating is more than 200. The Olympics were hosted in Beijing in
the year 2008, and this decision was protested by many human rights group in various
countries around the world, which highlighted the various cases of human rights violation by
the Chinese state4. China kept a strong vigil in the Olympic game venues and often it was
reported that the country barred pro-Tibet athletes from participating. The 2014 Olympics at
Sochi had seen large-scale corruption in the funds allocated towards the event. The 1938
Berlin Olympics became a medium for Hitler to highlight his racial cause of superiority.
1 Stern, David S. "3 State Sovereignty, the Politics of Identity and the." Perspectives on Third-World
Sovereignty: The Postmodern Paradox (2016): 28.
2 Wu, Jason, and Tianguang Meng. "The Nature of Ideology in China." In Annual Meeting of the Midwest
Political Science Association, Chicago. 2016.
3 Horne, John, and Garry Whannel. Understanding the olympics. Routledge, 2016.
4 Bremmer, Ian. 2018. "These 5 Facts Explain The Politics Of The Olympic Games". Time.
http://time.com/4456943/2016-olympics-rio-games-politics/.

2RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
However, the attempt failed as the hero of the game was an African American Jesse Owens
who won 4 gold medals throughout the event5.
Therefore, it is very evident that the mega events are dominated and impacted by
politics and ideologies. This statement can be further proved by two very controversial and
famous Olympic events, the 1980 Olympics at Moscow and the 1972 Olympics at Munich
Germany. A further study and analysis of these two events will prove that politics greatly
affect mega events. The thesis statement of this paper is that politics often dominate and
impact mega events, which will be proved by taking examples of two Olympic events, the
1980 Moscow Olympics and the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Russia had been a communist nation when the 1980 Olympics were organised in
Moscow. The Olympics are held in a particular host nation. Every country has its own friend
nations and enemy nation depending on the political ideology and contemporary diplomatic
position6. The period was when the cold war was going on in full swing and the Western
liberal nations and the Eastern Communists were at loggerhead in order to gain supremacy
and dominance in the globe. The United States of America was the leader of the western
liberal nations and former Soviet Union or present day Russia was heading the communists of
the east7. In 1979, Soviet Union to exert its direct influence on the politics of Afghanistan
invaded the later in collision with the Soviet army, which was an ally of the soviets8. On the
other side was the “Mujahedeen” and many independent groups of Afghanistan which wanted
independence from Soviet influence, and they were backed by the United States. The United
5 The Guardian. 2018. "Politics And The Olympics | Special Reports | Guardian.Co.Uk
Politics". Theguardian.Com.
6 Dunn, David H., ed. Diplomacy at the Highest Level: The evolution of international summitry. Springer, 2016.
7 Davis, Lynn Etheridge. The Cold War Begins: Soviet-American Conflict Over East Europe. Princeton
University Press, 2015.
8 Urban, Mark. War in Afghanistan. Springer, 2016.

3RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
States of America was naturally against Soviet influence on the countries of Asia9. There was
a huge casualty in the mentioned invasion and casualties included about 15 lakhs civilians of
Afghanistan, which is a massive number in itself10. People from all over the world were
devastated and shocked by these brutal killings in the country. Thus we can imagine the
political consequence that can happen after this large scale conflict.
The background political scenario of this invasion was the rise of the communist party
in Soviet Union, which became much unpopular because of the radical modernisation drive
that was taken up by the communist party. The rural areas of Afghanistan were mostly driven
by the traditional Islamic worldview and among them such sudden imposed modernisation
was unacceptable. This whole situation gave rise to the armed groups who were up for a
revolution against the communist government and almost saw themselves as Messiah from
the God to protect religion that prevailed in the country and associated customs, which were
now being dissolved due to regular modernisation by the communist party. The armed
revolution caused the killing of the communist president of the country and begun the process
of power takeover by the rival group11. Russia however wanted the communist government to
stay and hence deployed army in Kabul and re-instated the communist group, which were
loyalist to the Soviet Union. United States of America was against the Soviet influence on
Afghanistan and the deployment of the troops, hence it provide assistance to the militant
groups and the CIA or the Central Intelligence Agency had an active role in training the
militants in various parts of Pakistan and China12. The entry of the USSR, which is another
9 Urban, Mark. War in Afghanistan. Springer, 2016.
10 Hilali, A. Z. US-Pakistan relationship: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Taylor & Francis, 2017.
11 Hyman, Anthony. Afghanistan under Soviet domination, 1964–91. Springer, 2016.
12 Plokhy, Serhii. The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union. Hachette UK, 2015.

4RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
name by which the Soviet Union or the present day Russia was known, with its troops, in the
land of Afghanistan in 1979 caused the massive number of killings.
This caused a massive uproar throughout the globe especially in the western world,
which projected this as a brutal result of the imperialist hunger. The United States of America
initiated the process of boycotting the Olympics to be held at the Soviet Union in 1980 as a
protest against the invasion and mass killing of Soviet Union in Afghanistan. By analysing
the situation, it is well understood how both Soviet Union and United States of America
was utilising the political scenario at their benefit to gain political brownie points. The
killing of lakhs of civilians was used as a political tool by USA at one hand, and on the other
hand, the USSR did not even blink before killing lakhs of innocent civilians. The Olympic
events held just a year after fell prey to the politics between these two forces. There was a
meeting held among the NATO members after about half a month of the brutal incident when
the Western countries under the leadership of USA decided to altogether boycott the
Olympics at the Russian soil. NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was formed
by the alliance of a number of western liberal democracies13. The Soviet Union and the
eastern communist states formed the Warsaw pact in answer to NATO. It was full-fledged
political rivalry going on which casted its direct influence on the mega event called the
Olympics, and the killings of Afghanistan was used as the political tool. USA had sent its
famous athlete the boxer Muhammad Ali to different countries of Africa to pass on the
message of boycott so that the boycott can be successful in all these regions14. Muhammad
Ali was successful in exerting his influence in a number of these nations where he was
13 Zyla, Benjamin. Sharing the Burden?: NATO and Its Second-tier Powers. University of Toronto Press, 2015.
14 Ezra, Michael. 2018. "Muhammad Ali’S Strange, Failed Diplomatic Career". POLITICO Magazine.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/muhammad-ali-diplomat-213941.

5RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
visiting and many African nations boycotted the Olympics15. A huge number of countries
supported the decision of boycott that included West Germany, China, Chile, Philippines,
Canada, Argentina, and Japan among many others. Every country have their own “National
Olympic Committees” or the NOC16. The NOCs of United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium,
France and other countries were for the boycott and gave their NOC the absolute authority to
decide on the boycott17. UK and France did not totally boycott the Olympics but sent a
negligible delegation team that was a mockery to the game. Many of the boycotting nations
had participated in the event called “Liberty Bell Classics”, or the name by which it was
known as more famously “The Olympic Boycott Games”. It can be comprehended well
that how big impact politics may have from this instance. A completely new game was
organised just because of political influence. The world order was divided parallel into two
distinctive groups and the Olympics had been directly influenced, so much so that a
completely new event was organised. The Soviet government on its part did its bit of politics
by not covering on national television many teams the government of which supported the
boycott. It was a strange show of power and authority from the host country where for the
first time certain teams were not covered on the national channel due to political scenarios.
The communist government and the bureaucracy controlled by the government made sure
that the nations which were in support of the USSR, which was the host country, got better
facilities and more coverage of press and television18. This crisis on the prestigious event of
Olympics had brought in a huge blow to the goodwill of Russia as a nation. The political
15 Cuddihy, Martin. 2018. "Muhammad Ali Remembered By Africa". ABC News.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-09/muhummad-ali-is-remembered-by-africa/7495452.
16 Pettigrew, Stephen, and Danyel Reiche. "Hosting the Olympic Games: an overstated advantage in sports
history." The International Journal of the History of Sport 33, no. 6-7 (2016): 635-647.
17 Boykoff, Jules. Power games: A political history of the Olympics. Verso Books, 2016.
18 Lee, Kwang-Hoon. "The Olympics, Soft Power, and Democratization: The Role of Bureaucracy." In The
Experience of Democracy and Bureaucracy in South Korea, pp. 181-215. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017.

6RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
rivalry surrounding the Olympic games brought much defame to the game as well. The
rivalry between two nations was spread across the globe and they formed their own alliance
in political, economic, and military front. Thus, by analysing and understanding the 1980
Moscow Olympics it is very much evident that political situations control and affect the
mega events hosted by a country.
The next event that will be discussed as an evidence of political influence on mega
events is the 1972 summer Olympics held in Munich Germany. It was a massacre that
happened when a big terrorist attack happened and an eleven Israeli athletes and one German
police officer was killed by terrorists from Palestine. Olympics have been always under
scanner for terrorism threats because it is one of the largest international events that is
organised on earth, in which many country participates, and one attack on the Olympics have
multiple implications on global power sharing situation and stability19. The political struggle
between the two nations Israel and Palestine is well known throughout the world. Palestine
and Israel have claims on the same geographical tract, and people from both the nations want
the same land, which they connect with their religious tradition20. Because Israel successfully
gained control over a large part of the land claimed by Palestine therefore there emerged
Palestinian rebel and radical groups that had been in armed conflict and terrorist activities
against Israel.
This was the background and cause of the terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics,
which has taken hostage eleven Israeli players and then eventual killing of them21. The main
demand of the terrorists who held the hostages was release of 234 jailed prisoners of
19 Spaaij, Ramón. "Terrorism and Security at the Olympics: Empirical Trends and Evolving Research
Agendas." The International Journal of the History of Sport 33, no. 4 (2016): 451-468, 2016.
20 Gelvin, James L. The Israel-Palestine conflict: One hundred years of war. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
21 Nardo, Don. Massacre in Munich: How Terrorists Changed the Olympics and the World. Capstone, 2016.

7RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
Palestinian origin in Israel. The German nation when got the chance to host the Olympics it
was a taken as a big opportunity by them as the political history of German had been dark and
bloody. The Olympic committee of West Germany hoped to gain a better image by
successfully hosting the mega event. As has been already mentioned that in 1936 Hitler had
tarnished the image of the Olympic Games by endeavouring to champion the cause of the
racial superiority, which the West German authorities hoped to correct this time. The officials
who had been inspecting the Olympic village confirmed that there was a huge shortage of
security in the place and large areas where isolated and without proper patrolling from
security personnel. Many experts believe that Germany had warnings about the terrorist
attack but did not respond appropriately to defend any such situation. Recent reports that
have emerged has expressed that the athletes were not just killed but where tortured in a
horrific manner before the killings. They were beaten, mutilated and tortured in brutal way
and then they were shot dead22. The terrorist attack happened after 10 days of the game has
passed by and people were easy and carefree in their movement within the Olympic village.
On the 11th day morning at 4:35, the terrorists who were eight in number and called as the
“Black September” entered the Olympic Village and held the players hostage. The demand as
already stated was the release of 232 alleged terrorists and criminals imprisoned at Israel23.
The Israel government were not at all ready to give into the demands and decided to go for a
rescue operation. At the end of the botched up operation all the eleven athletes, one German
police officer and five of the terrorists were dead. The expert psychologist at the police
department Georg Sieber had been given the responsibility of designing and predicting 26
possible terrorist attack scenarios, which could possibly happen. The scenario number 21 was
22 Sanchez, Raf. "Horrific New Details Emerge About The 1972 Munich Olympics
Massacre". Telegraph.Co.Uk,2018.
23 Dw.com, Deutsche. "1972 Munich Olympics Massacre - An Avoidable Catastrophe? | Germany| News And
In-Depth Reporting From Berlin And Beyond | DW | 07.09.2017". DW.COM. 2018.
http://www.dw.com/en/1972-munich-olympics-massacre-an-avoidable-catastrophe/a-40405813.

8RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
very much similar to the actual terrorist attack happening. Authorities and agencies from
various other countries including the United States of America, Japan and China had warned
of a possible terrorist attack at the Olympics village. The police officer alleged in an
interview that the police chief at that time did not pay heed to the warnings24. Therefore it
can be proved that even political ignorance of critical warnings from agencies also
impact the mega events adversely.
There were some great flaws from the part of the authorities that increased the
chances of the situation getting worse. The reporters were continuously giving information
about the strategic locations of the snipers, which helped the terrorists. The political
implication of the terrorist attack was hugely destructive for both sports and world politics25.
7134 athletes from all over the world were participating in the games all of whom were
terrified of the situation and the embassies of the concerned countries became hyperactive
activity to ensure safety from all the quarters26. The incident had forced the United States to
change its various diplomatic policies. The “United States Department Bureau for Diplomatic
Security” has realigned the security measures because of the mentioned incident, and all the
higher authorities were brought to the drawing board to strategize better security for all its
diplomats, emissaries, representatives, and athletes visiting abroad. United Sates president
Richard Nixon himself was part of the plan for drawing security changes and modifications.
The tension between the Palestinian and Israeli nation was further escalated and Israel took
up the operation called the “Wrath of God” and killed a great number of Palestinian terrorists
24 Dw.com, Deutsche. "1972 Munich Olympics Massacre - An Avoidable Catastrophe? | Germany| News And
In-Depth Reporting From Berlin And Beyond | DW | 07.09.2017". DW.COM. 2018.
http://www.dw.com/en/1972-munich-olympics-massacre-an-avoidable-catastrophe/a-40405813.
25 Wagner, Christoph. "Munich 1972. Tragedy, Terror and Triumph at the Olympic Games." (2016): 139-141.
26 International Olympic Committee. "1972 Olympics - Munich Summer Games Results &
Highlights". International Olympic Committee. 2018. https://www.olympic.org/munich-1972

9RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
all over the globe who were allegedly connected to the massacre27. Israeli offensive against
the Palestinians further antagonised the people of the later and many new revolutionary
groups and rebels were formed within Palestine and various countries all over the world. In
the part of Israel, the offensive against Palestine was spread even in the mind of common
people who saw the incident of attack as a coward attempt to strike against Israeli
nationalism. The image of Germany was permanently tarnished as this was the second time
that it has failed as a nation to properly arrange for the mega event, and allowed the situation
were eleven players were killed. The rescue operation was completely botched up, and the
under preparedness of the police department and security arrangement of the West German
nation was highlighted across the globe. The person heading the Israeli team at the Olympics
was Shmuel Lalkin who had shown his apprehensions regarding the security arrangements at
the Olympic Village. However, he was silenced by the authorities and was told to mind his
own business as the manager of a sports team and not try to interfere in security matters28.
Mega events are organised by spending huge amount of money and security
arrangement must be one of the prime concern for the arrangers. Both the cases discussed
above are examples of extreme political implication on non-political mega events. The
organisers of the game are greatly handicapped by the political interference of the country. In
case of the Moscow, political crisis at the Olympics the athletes of the nations who
boycotted the event could not participate even if they intended to. The government and
the political authority of the country decide the fate of the citizens or athletes and
influence their decision about participation. The bureaucracy of the Soviet Union was
compelled to ignore the handful of players who still came to participate form the countries,
27 Seely, Jennifer. "OPERATION WRATH OF GOD (1972–1992)." Famous Assassinations in World History:
An Encyclopedia [2 volumes] (2014): 386.
28 Maslin, Janet. 2018. "A Massacre In Munich, And What Came After". Nytimes.Com.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/books/a-massacre-in-munich-and-what-came-after.html.

10RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
which supported the boycott. They got less attention, care and got no coverage whatsoever on
television even if they played well. The communist government’s decision to invade
Afghanistan ruined the Olympics event and created dissention even between friendly nations
who could not agree on the decision of whether to participate in the Olympics or not. A
section of the countries decided to not participate as the games were happening in the
country, which was responsible for the death of lakhs of people, another section, argued that
Olympics are non-political sports even and has no connection with political struggles. In the
case of the “black Friday” terrorist attack on the Olympics at Munich, it was a
condemnable and grotesque act of cowardice, which resulted because of the political
rivalry and enmity between two nations, and the cost had to be paid by innocent
athletes and the games now had to carry the shame of unfortunate event forever. There
is possibly very less example of such great impact of political rivalry on an apolitical
mega event.
In conclusion it can be said, deducing from the above two events, that political
interference can completely change the way mega events are arranged, conducted and
perceived. A particular event can be completely ruined and defamed forever by political
implications and interference. By analysing the evidences above it can be firmly said that
politics have huge impact on mega events and it cannot be overcome very easily without
endeavour from all sections of the society including the political class. People can only
pray and hope that catastrophes like the horrible terrorist attack at Munich are not repeated.
The government and the arrangers of such events must pay absolute attention to the minute
details of the security arrangement in place much before the events take place. Any gap in
security measures must be taken care of diligently so that no such unfortunate event is
repeated ever in the history of humankind.

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REFERENCES:
Boykoff, Jules. Power games: A political history of the Olympics. Verso Books, 2016.
Bremmer, Ian. 2018. "These 5 Facts Explain The Politics Of The Olympic Games". Time.
http://time.com/4456943/2016-olympics-rio-games-politics/.
Cuddihy, Martin. 2018. "Muhammad Ali Remembered By Africa". ABC News.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-09/muhummad-ali-is-remembered-by-africa/7495452.
Davis, Lynn Etheridge. The Cold War Begins: Soviet-American Conflict Over East Europe.
Princeton University Press, 2015.
Dunn, David H., ed. Diplomacy at the Highest Level: The evolution of international
summitry. Springer, 2016.
Dw.com, Deutsche. "1972 Munich Olympics Massacre - An Avoidable Catastrophe? |
Germany| News And In-Depth Reporting From Berlin And Beyond | DW |
07.09.2017". DW.COM. 2018. http://www.dw.com/en/1972-munich-olympics-massacre-an-
avoidable-catastrophe/a-40405813.
Ezra, Michael. 2018. "Muhammad Ali’S Strange, Failed Diplomatic Career". POLITICO
Magazine. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/muhammad-ali-diplomat-
213941.
Gelvin, James L. The Israel-Palestine conflict: One hundred years of war. Cambridge
University Press, 2014.
Hilali, A. Z. US-Pakistan relationship: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Taylor & Francis,
2017.

13RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
Horne, John, and Garry Whannel. Understanding the olympics. Routledge, 2016.
Hyman, Anthony. Afghanistan under Soviet domination, 1964–91. Springer, 2016.
International Olympic Committee. "1972 Olympics - Munich Summer Games Results &
Highlights". International Olympic Committee. 2018. https://www.olympic.org/munich-1972.
Lee, Kwang-Hoon. "The Olympics, Soft Power, and Democratization: The Role of
Bureaucracy." In The Experience of Democracy and Bureaucracy in South Korea, pp. 181-
215. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017.
Maslin, Janet. 2018. "A Massacre In Munich, And What Came After". Nytimes.Com.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/books/a-massacre-in-munich-and-what-came-after.html.
Nardo, Don. Massacre in Munich: How Terrorists Changed the Olympics and the World.
Capstone, 2016.
Pettigrew, Stephen, and Danyel Reiche. "Hosting the Olympic Games: an overstated
advantage in sports history." The International Journal of the History of Sport 33, no. 6-7
(2016): 635-647.
Plokhy, Serhii. The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union. Hachette UK, 2015.
Sanchez, Raf. "Horrific New Details Emerge About The 1972 Munich Olympics
Massacre". Telegraph.Co.Uk,2018.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/12028765/Horrific-new-
details-emerge-about-the-1972-Munich-Olympics-massacre.html.
Seely, Jennifer. "OPERATION WRATH OF GOD (1972–1992)." Famous Assassinations in
World History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes] (2014): 386.

14RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEGA EVENTS AND POLITICS
Spaaij, Ramón. "Terrorism and Security at the Olympics: Empirical Trends and Evolving
Research Agendas." The International Journal of the History of Sport 33, no. 4 (2016): 451-
468, 2016.
Stern, David S. "3 State Sovereignty, the Politics of Identity and the." Perspectives on Third-
World Sovereignty: The Postmodern Paradox (2016): 28.
The Guardian. 2018. "Politics And The Olympics | Special Reports | Guardian.Co.Uk
Politics". Theguardian.Com.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/politicspast/page/0,9067,892902,00.html.
Urban, Mark. War in Afghanistan. Springer, 2016.
Wagner, Christoph. "Munich 1972. Tragedy, Terror and Triumph at the Olympic Games."
(2016): 139-141.
Wu, Jason, and Tianguang Meng. "The Nature of Ideology in China." In Annual Meeting of
the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago. 2016.
Zyla, Benjamin. Sharing the Burden?: NATO and Its Second-tier Powers. University of
Toronto Press, 2015.