The Weather Underground was a militant faction of the Student for a Democratic Society (SDS) founded in 1969. The organization is primarily associated with non-life threatening bombings; however, the media often portrayed them as a terrorist group. They had been a part of the non-violent group the SDS but saw no change coming from their actions, so they began to engage in more hostile actions. In an era of mass violence, with assassinations and widespread police brutality; the Weather Underground believed that the only way they could truly make a change was to resort to violence. The Weather Underground was influenced by the Vietnam War which they saw as an illegitimate war. Their turn to violence was not as abstract as one might think as violence