Why Waco Has Not Gone Away: Critical Incidents and Cultural Trauma Jayne Seminare Docherty ABSTRACT: Eight years after the 1993 standoff between federal law enforcement agents and the Branch Davidians, "Waco" has become a shorthand reference to the tragedy that claimed the lives of more than eighty people. After internal investigations by the Department of the Treasury and the Department ofJustice, two trials, two sets of congres- sional hearings, the publication of numerous books and articles, and the production of documentaryfilms,we are no closer to bringing closure to Waco than we were in 1993. To understand why Waco has not gone away, it is useful to combine a model of conflict that focuses attention on the motivational power of symbols and narrative with a model of trauma that operates at the collective and not just the individual level. M uch to the dismay of those who live in the Texas town, no one can say the word "Waco" without conjuring images of dead and wounded federal agents and a conflagration in which more than seventy people, including twenty-three children (two of them in utero), perished. Between 28 February and 19 April 1993, media images from Waco were seared into our collective psyche. On 19 April 1995, the images from Waco were magnified by the Oklahoma City bombing—an act of terrorism intended by those who conspired to carry it out as revenge for alleged government wrongdoing at Waco. The staying power of Waco cannot be explained by the violence of the events; nor can the persistence of concern over Waco be attributed to personal trauma. However violent the events were, the 1993 confrontation directly impacted fewer people than a large plane crash or many natural disas- ters. Why, then, does Waco keep resurfacing with so much power in public discourses, both official and unofficial? We can best answer this question by combining a model of conflict that focuses attention on the motivational power of symbols and narrative with a model of trauma that operates at the collective and not just the individual level. 186