Word: alerted
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...special prosecutor would be appointed. He seemed almost eager to seize on a new crisis in the Middle East to claim his indispensability and strength, but such was the low state of his credibility that an emotional and unfortunate controversy erupted over whether he had ordered a global alert of all U.S. military units at least in part to divert attention from his own grave problems...
...sooner had Richard Nixon put 2,000,000 U.S. servicemen round the world on stand-by alert than many Americans were asking whether the war scare was really necessary. Undoubtedly, most previous Presidents would have received wholehearted public backing, at least initially; as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said, it was a symptom of the times that Nixon did not. Instead, the suspicion arose that the President had overreacted to Soviet tough talk, either because his Watergate woes had impaired his judgment or because he wanted to divert public attention from them with a show of brinkmanship...
...troops to the Middle East. Defense Secretary James Schlesinger reported that U.S. officials had been watching Soviet moves with increasing misgivings. The Russians had built up their naval forces in the Mediterranean from 60 to 85 ships since the war began, put about 50,000 airborne troops on "comprehensive alert," and mobilized two mechanized divisions near the Black Sea. They then abruptly ended their supply flights to Egypt, leading U.S. analysts to fear that the transports had been called home to be used to move Soviet troops into the Middle East...
...discrepancy in the accounts as to when the alert was signaled added to the doubts. Secretary Kissinger said that it came at 3 a.m.; the Pentagon claimed that the time was more like midnight. The sequence gave rise to suspicions among some that Nixon might have decided on the alert, then presented it to the council to be ratified...
...alert--shadows or flashing or blinking lights may mean trouble...