15,697
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[File: David_koresh.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|David Koresh/Vernon Howell]]
__NOTOC__
From February 29, through April 19, 1993 millions of Americans and people from all over the world were glued to their television sets as they watched the violent standoff between an obscure religious sect, known as the Branch Davidians, and the federal government unfold. Most people viewed the events as a curiosity, but some were genuinely worried and afraid that the result would end up similar to what happened months earlier in northern Idaho when a survivalist named Randy Weaver was involved in an armed standoff with federal agents that left his wife and son dead.
====David Koresh and the Branch Davidians====
[[File: Flat_of_Branch_Davidians.png|300px250px|thumbnail|left|The Branch Davidian Flag]]
In order to understand how the Waco tragedy affected American society, a brief background examination of David Koresh and the Branch Davidians is warranted. The Branch Davidian sect was the idea of a Hungarian immigrant named Victor Houteff who converted to the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church in 1918 and within a few years became one of its major leaders. Believing that his vision of the Bible and the SDA church was the correct one, Houteff took a small group of followers and broke from the main body of the church in 1933, moving to a tract of land outside of Waco, Texas that he christened “Mount Carmel” in reference to the biblical locale in northern Israel.
====The Siege====
[[File: Mountcarmelfirebefore.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Aerial View of Mount Carmel before the Final FBI Assault on April 19, 1993]]
The ATF seemingly had plenty of time to plan their raid on the Branch Davidians; enough time for them to nickname the operation “Showtime” and to enlist 100 agents and three helicopters for the ill-fated February 28 raid. They believed that by initiating the raid just before ten a.m. they would catch the Davidians off guard and that most of the men would be separated from the women and children. They were tragically wrong. To this day there is still considerable debate concerning which side fired the first shot, but the ensuing firefight resulted in the deaths of four ATF agents and twenty wounded. The Davidians fared a bit better in their casualty count – two of their members were killed and three were wounded. By the afternoon a ceasefire was arranged that allowed the ATF to take their wounded from the scene and several Davidians surrendered and were promptly arrested. But the tragic events of February 28 were only the beginning. <ref> Kerksetter, p. 458</ref>
