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The early 20th century witnessed the emergence of an orthodox Marxist- Leninist doctrine against terrorism. However, the 1970s, began to witness a wave of terrorism launched in the name of Marxist-Leninism. How can we explain this paradox? This article traces the intellectual roots of Marxist-Leninist terrorism to three incidents: the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the foco theory formulated with reference to the success of this Revolution, and finally, the relocation of the foco in urban centres. The initial doctrine against terrorism was based on tactical considerations and was consequently undermined by the successful deployment of small-scale asymmetric tactics and the ensuing socia list revolution in Cuba.