Red Army Faction that was embedded, in or part of, a wider communist workers' movement, i.e. a "fraction" of a whole. The group always called itself the "Rote Armee Fraktion", never the Baader-Meinhof Group or Gang. The name refers to all incarnations of the organization: the "first generation" RAF, which consisted of Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, and others; the "second generation" RAF; and the "third generation" RAF, which existed in the 1980s and 90s. The terms "Baader-Meinhof Gang" and "Baader-Meinhof Group" were first used by the media and the government. The group never used these names to refer to itself, since it viewed itself
Red Army Faction politicians (like Richard Nixon and Helmut Schmidt) as well as some former U.S. agents (who were willing to testify) to be called as witnesses. Later when their requests were rejected, U.S. agents Barton Osbourne (ex-CIA, ex-member of the Phoenix Program), G. Peck (NSA), and Gary Thomas gave extensive interviews (organized by defense lawyers) on 23 June 1976 where they explained how FRG support was crucial for U.S. operations in Vietnam. Peck concluded that the RAF "was the response to criminal aggression of the U.S. government in Indochina and the assistance of the German government. The real terrorist was my government."