Word: backed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Every day after noon prayers, the students and the crowd went through a curious ritual that often ended in mass hysteria. The students came to the embassy gates to exchange political slogans with the people outside. They threw carnations and tulips, an Iranian symbol of martyrdom, back and forth through the gates. Said one worried Iranian bystander: "I think the're is a national death wish emerging...
Such scenes reinforced the U.S. concern that the Iranian government and even Khomeini himself were being swept along by events. But from the Ayatullah's point of view, there was ample reason to welcome some political diversion. He has fared poorly in bringing the Iranian economy back to prerevolutionary levels. Industry is estimated to be operating at only 40% of capacity. With workers' councils sitting in on managerial decisions, many managers are afraid to make decisions on anything but issuing paychecks. Chaos prevails at the docks and at highway customs posts along the main truck route from Europe. Inflation...
...stupid, vindictive old man"?their official support seemed tepid. Asked New York Times Columnist James Reston: "Where are the allies?" Where, he wondered, are the Europeans who always yearned for "collective security"? European diplomats retorted that they had backed the U.S. as well as they could and that West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in particular, had strongly supported Carter. Schmidt told colleagues: "The West must show unity. We must back the U.S." If the Europeans were restrained, it was probably because 1) it was a time for "cool professionalism," as an American diplomat...
Meanwhile, back in the U.S., the days of waiting were having an effect on the families of those still held in Tehran. Some wives all but charged the State Department with criminal negligence for having failed to protect its staff once the Shah had been admitted to the U.S. "I am so bitter I could scream," said Louisa Kennedy, wife of Hostage Mike Kennedy. She has been manning telephones in the State Department Operations Center, talking to families of other hostages...
...this emphasis on sending back to Iran for trial a dying old man who has tubes draining out his insides...