Word: diplomatic
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Western diplomats in Moscow see two motives in Gorbachev's initiative. They believe that the Kremlin would like to limit defections by giving artists enough freedom to make it unnecessary for them to flee the country. Rules governing travel abroad for artists and intellectuals are being relaxed, provided their trips are financed by foreign sources. Gorbachev would like to gain the trust of the Soviet intelligentsia, something no Soviet regime has enjoyed since Lenin. "He's giving them a little more room to work," said one diplomat, "and in return he will expect their help in his foreign and economic...
...liberal reformer optimists had hoped for. He is widely believed to have ordered up Peking's current crackdown on "bourgeois liberalism," a reference essentially to any sort of behavior that deviates from orthodox Communism. "Deng has not been forced into a weak position by the conservatives," said a Western diplomat in Peking. "This has his full support." The campaign has been likened to the movement against "spiritual pollution" mounted by the government three years ago. But, as one Western diplomat noted, "the 1984 campaign was largely rhetorical. This one is a purge...
...Austria. Along the snowbound, 170-mile highway linking Budapest with Vienna, more than 130 cars were immobilized for up to 18 hours until Soviet, Hungarian and Austrian tanks dug them out. One of the liberated motorists was Austria's Ambassador to Hungary, Arthur Agstner. Declared the grateful diplomat: "If the Soviet tanks had not arrived in time, several of us could have frozen to death...
...ailing Soviet economy, is anxious to bring his soldiers home from Afghanistan. The question facing Gorbachev is how. The rebels refuse to join a government that is not independent, while the Soviets want a regime friendly to Moscow. "Gorbachev cannot afford just to walk away," says a senior U.S. diplomat, "and the Afghan rebels will not be snowed by phony reconciliation...
...whatever reason, Gaddafi's break with Goukouni caused most of the Chadian rebels to shift their loyalties from Gaddafi to Habre, thereby fundamentally changing the political role of the Libyan forces in northern Chad. Says a Western diplomat in N'Djamena: "What you have now is an invasion of Chad by Libya." Much of the credit for Chad's recent achievements goes to Habre, a French-trained lawyer who has managed to create a sense of unity in a country that has never known the meaning of the word. Buoyed by these successes, the soft-spoken Habre sounded unusually confident...