Word: 36th
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...however, accomplished somewhat the same purpose unilaterally. Backed by Britain and France, it warned Saddam not to use either fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters north of the 36th parallel, with the implicit threat that if he did they would be shot down, and not to employ armed forces of any kind to interfere with relief work anywhere in Iraq. The less than 10% of Iraq that lies north of the parallel takes in all the areas where the Kurdish refugees are now concentrated. So Washington's action in effect establishes most of northern Iraq as a safe haven in which...
Good histories bestow suspense on foregone conclusions. Such works manage to override knowledge about how things turned out; they do so by recapturing the tensions and uncertainties of the participants while the outcome was in doubt. That Lyndon Baines Johnson, for example, became the 36th President will surprise no one now. But readers of Robert Caro's Means of Ascent are in for a white-knuckle, hair-raising tale that could have ended in any of a dozen different ways, with L.B.J. in the White House the longest shot of all. This is good history, and with a vengeance...