Word: defend
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When twelve Vietnamese divisions swept into Cambodia last December, Hanoi billed the blitzkrieg invasion as a "liberation." Having overthrown the genocidal regime of Pol Pot and installed their own puppet government, headed by Heng Samrin, the Vietnamese might then have been expected to withdraw, if only to defend their own northern border against China. Instead, it has become increasingly clear that what Viet Nam actually has in mind is the colonization of the country the Cambodians now call Kampuchea...
...opportunity too. They interpret the national mood as marking the end of the Viet Nam decade of doubt about America and its role. They forecast a substantial increase in the U.S. armed forces and a willingness to make it plain that these forces would be used to defend America's just interests...
...theory circulating in Washington goes like this: after the disaster in Vietnam, the U.S. grew so timid about flexing its muscles in the Third World that it lost the will and ability to defend "legitimate interests" there. As a result, when the Tehran mob broke traditional standards of international law and took the embassy occupants hostage, America felt powerless to respond. To avoid such embarassing nuisances in the future, the Pentagon's friends in Congress argue, the U.S. must develop a "quick-strike force" able to dump a motorized division anywhere in the Third World within 60 days. Congress approved...
...very convenient for future Secretaries of State who might itch to tip the balance in some civil war in Africa or Asia. Proponents of the force say that today our government understands the dangers of intervening in complex local conflicts, and would only use a quick-strike force to defend our "legitimate interests...
...tremendous, it would still fall far short of the nuclear holocaust that would almost inevitably consume East and West. This reasoning was at the heart of Henry Kissinger's widely noted September speech in Brussels. Kissinger argued that the American strategic arsenal alone cannot be relied upon to defend Europe, since to do so would almost certainly elicit massive Soviet retaliation against...