Word: countering
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Looking tough is a special challenge for George Bush, burdened as he is with the image of the eternal second banana. Lately the Vice President has sought to counter murmurs about the "wimp factor" by citing his captaincy of the Yale baseball team and his World War II combat record, as well as his Government posts. "Everything I've done in my life has equated with leadership," he says. But Bush undercuts his effort by his refusal to adopt any firm positions of his own. His principal rival, Bob Dole, exudes a can-do aura that allows him to project...
...proposal. Moderate Arab states reacted angrily last fall to news that the U.S. had secretly dealt with Iran. Kuwait then requested Soviet protection for its tankers. Administration officials concede that granting assistance to Kuwait was a way to make up for the U.S.'s loss of credibility and to counter the Soviet move...
Accepting this rhetoric on faith would be dangerous, but so would dismissing it outright. If only in public relations terms, it makes no sense for the U.S. and its allies to surrender the high ground. To counter the Gorbachev line, the West will need to come up with initiatives and a new terminology of its own. Above all, it must find ways to induce Gorbachev to show his hand, to reveal what changes in Soviet policy he is willing, and able, to make. So far there have been few concrete changes, and some of them -- involving a more sophisticated outreach...
...covert military activities. The old style of Soviet diplomacy, which tended to be clumsy and naysaying, was often actually helpful to America. A more sophisticated and flexible style will mean tougher competition for the U.S. Under what has been dubbed the Reagan Doctrine, the U.S. has attempted to counter traditional Soviet military expansion. But can it now come up with bold diplomatic initiatives that match Gorbachev at his new game...
...security as the guiding force in East-West relations. After visiting Moscow in February, he came away feeling that the Soviets had in fact adopted this approach. "The Soviets have made a major change in both rhetoric and doctrine under Gorbachev by adopting mutual security," he says. "It runs counter to Leninist doctrine, which was that one had to achieve superiority and threaten others in order to be safe...