Word: beset
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...desire did not spring from an unnatural greed for power, or even from his driving competitive spirit, but from his feeling that if he could be returned to the White House with a fresh and stronger mandate he would be better able to achieve solutions to the problems that beset his nation...
Henceforth, Diem's path was increasingly beset by missed opportunities and aborted chances. To some extent, he became a captive of his own close-knit family. Brother Nhu, without holding elective or appointive office, became the intellectual power behind the regime, as well as the organizer of its secret police. Brother Can supplied muscle, running central Viet Nam like a warlord. Brother Thuc, Archbishop of Hué, offered spiritual guidance, undismayed by occasional, barely concealed reproofs from the Vatican. To the band of brothers was added the indomitable sister-in-law, Mme. Nhu, whose dedicated feminism resulted...
...despite all these reassurances and disclaimers, the Pentagon's Gilpatric was right when he described Western defense policy as "entering a new phase." This is evident in East-West relations: Washington seems determined to pursue a détente with Moscow, and the Kremlin, beset by economic and Chinese troubles, seems willing to accept at least a cold war pause. The "new phase" is even more sharply evident in the increasingly outdated design of NATO, whose members are deeply split over the philosophy and practice of Western defense. The whole structure of the Western Alliance is being reexamined...
...tend to find excuses for not fielding more troops, citing the country's severe industrial manpower shortage. But whether a U.S. reduction would have the desired effect is doubtful. Charles de Gaulle, for one, has deprived NATO of some French troops on a considerably smaller pretense, and Britain, beset by balance-of-payments problems of its own, would gladly find excuses to pull back its Rhine army; already the London Daily Express advises its readers that if the U.S. can swiftly fly divisions across the Atlantic, it would be all the easier for Britain to perform the same stunt...
...addition to the clerical and administrative burdens created by the existing structure, the committee plans to consider the more concrete problems which beset a system permitting some degree of individual choice...