Word: assert
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...before the first round ended in late April, the new General Secretary began to assert himself -- subtly at first, then spectacularly. American experts have often said the U.S. comes to the negotiating table as though arms control were a game of poker while the Soviet Union plays it as chess. Gorbachev showed an ability to combine the tactics of both games in a way that was sometimes masterly, sometimes maddening, sometimes both...
...ignorance of the agency's history. There are only two ways to object to the CIA-sponsored Kennedy School study. One may argue that the CIA is some kind of an inherently immoral organization--whatever that means--with which Harvard should have no ties. Or one can assert that the University should have no links with the CIA merely because it is an active government agency. The majority opinion wavers between the two arguments, both of which are superficial and don't withstand minimal scrutiny...
Unless one believes that gentlemen shouldn't open each other's mail, it's meaningless to assert that the CIA intrinsically is an immoral body. America, like any other country, needs to gather information about other nations and train analysts to assess the collected data. It's that simple...
...does a candidate deal with erring subordinates? He may resort to temper tantrums or just an icy stare, but unless a would-be President is willing to assert discipline, he risks being governed by a staff that provides only grief for the chief...
...know that they wouldn't make the grade, they know they wouldn't fit in. And when dumb people do come here, we generously instruct them. The smartest Harvard students and professors rally to the cause. With clever phrases and melodious hymns we gracefully expose their abysmal dumbness and assert our intellectual primacy. In this way either we gently persuade them and borderline students into being smart or we succeed in keeping them and their dumb ideas away...