Word: combat
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...like trying to fly a 747 through Washington's Rock Creek Park." So observed a top White House adviser of the way in which Jimmy Carter last week tried to extricate himself from a predicament mostly of his own making: the inflated fuss over the Soviet combat brigade in Cuba. In a straightforward speech to the nation, he largely defused the diplomatic issue, but by no means satisfied all his critics. Nor did he add any much needed decisiveness to his image as a leader. The net result may, in fact, be the loss of some Senate votes...
...diplomatic sleight of hand, Carter converted this protestation of innocence into a Soviet pledge. Said he: "Although we have persuasive evidence that the unit has been a combat brigade, the Soviet statements about the future noncombat status of the unit are significant." He admitted that Moscow has been building up its military presence in Cuba, contributing to "tensions in the Caribbean and the Central American region" and adding to the "fears of some countries that they may come under Soviet or Cuban pressure." But he concluded that the issue is "certainly no reason for a return to the cold...
...many Americans the timing of the ceremonies-even though they were mandated by a treaty that the Senate had passed and President Carter had signed -could not have been worse. The furor at home over the Soviet combat troops in Cuba was an uncomfortable reminder that the Caribbean was no longer an "American lake." Those troops, as well as the leftist tinge of the Cuban-assisted revolution that overthrew Nicaraguan Strongman Anastasio Somoza, raised fears that the canal faced a remote threat...
...preparations on the tiny Soviet-held island of Shikotan off the coast of Japan did bear some striking similarities. In Tokyo last week Japan's top defense official, Ganri Yamashita, reported to the Cabinet that over the past year the Soviet Union has deployed up to 12,000 combat troops on Shikotan and two other isles in the southern Kurils, less than twelve miles off Japan's northeastern shore. The division-level force, he said, was equipped with tanks, SAM antiaircraft missiles and about a dozen Hind assault helicopters...
...were inspecting their armaments, for it was clear they would soon be needed." Israeli bombers were conducting "deep penetration " raids on Cairo and the Nile Delta. Moscow was installing its most sophisticated surface-to-air missiles near the Nile and the Suez Canal, and at least 15,000 Soviet combat personnel were in Egypt to operate and defend the sites. Despite the growing danger of an Egyptian-Israeli war, however, the biggest blowup of 1970 occurred in Jordan. Twice in three months, Palestinian guerrillas tried to assassinate Jordan's King Hussein. When the King's troops began retaliating...