Originally Posted by Rochard

There is a staggering difference between a terrorist act and a world war. Defining terrorism as "violent acts which are intended to create fear" is way too vague.

This would mean that any time a husband smacks his wife, it's a terrorist incident - which clearly it is not. At the same time, any type of warfare would be considered a terrorist act. Clearly, during WWII when we bombed a factory that build ball bearings for tanks this was a military action, not a an act of terrorism.

Did it cause terror in Japan and around the world? It sure did. But so did Sputnik.