Word: contrasting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...President ticked off a long series of actions that Moscow must take ("tear down the Iron Curtain . . . achieve a lasting political pluralism and respect for human rights" inside the Soviet Union) to earn U.S. trust. By contrast, he offered little in the way of U.S. action. He revived and expanded the "open skies" proposal advanced 34 years ago by Dwight Eisenhower. Under it, each side would let the other's unarmed reconnaissance planes, and now satellites, fly over its territory...
...bottles clutter roadsides and choke waterways. Though the U.S. faces a staggering excess of all forms of solid waste, plastic refuse is especially onerous: all but invulnerable to deterioration, the debris can last for centuries. What's more, a mere 1% of all plastic waste is being recycled, in contrast to 25% of used aluminum...
...Bush have taught Americans self-indulgence. After the past three American presidential elections, it is unthinkable for an ambitious politician to call on the citizenry -- or any sizable subset of it -- to make the slightest sacrifice for the good of society or its own future prosperity. Thatcher, by contrast, positively delights in delivering bad news and stern sermons. "After almost any major operation, you feel worse before you convalesce. But you do not refuse the operation." That typical bit of Thatcher rhetoric is not the kind of metaphor that comes out of the Peggy Noonan poetical-presidential-puffery machine...
Both Reagan and Thatcher nurtured their legends with small yet symbolic military triumphs early in their tenures. But contrast Reagan's famous victory in Grenada with Thatcher's in the Falklands. Grenada was conquered before most Americans even knew Grenada existed. But it was more than a month from the time the British task force sailed to retake the Falklands from Argentina to the time the war was won. Whatever the rights and wrongs of either war, announcing the prospect of a battle is leadership; announcing a victory is not. Whether America will actually defend its freedom with blood...
...contrast with 1988, when the binge in corporate buyouts helped offset the defection of millions of small investors, the latest downturn reflected weakness in virtually every phase of Wall Street's business. With merger mania dampened by high interest rates and fears of a political backlash against debt-laden megadeals, the value of announced corporate acquisitions fell to $76 billion in the first quarter of 1989, down 58% from the comparable period last year. At the same time, intense competition has driven down the commission on stock trades to as little as 4 cents a share, vs. about 8 cents...