Word: distract
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...International Information Department of the Central Committee. Speaking on Soviet television last week, Zamyatin declared that America's "economic and political blackmail" of the U.S.S.R. stemmed from Carter's desperate bid for reelection. "In order to score points as a presidential candidate, Carter decided to distract American attention from domestic problems by creating international tensions," charged Zamyatin, who is one of President Leonid Brezhnev's chief foreign policy advisers...
...calling for removal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan as "gross interference in the internal affairs" of that country. Casting about for an explanation of this massive Muslim repudiation of Soviet policies, TASS declared that the vote was the result of "arm twisting" by the U.S., which was seeking to" distract attention from the "threat posed by the forces of imperialism and Zionism...
Gross differences between history and human anticipation of it are as old as the practice of prophecy. Most respectable forecasters are already painfully aware of the shortcomings of their art, and little is to be gained by rubbing their noses in the disparities. (For one thing, it might distract them from the job of forecasting the 1980s.) Still, a certain amount of carefully aimed derision is justified in a world increasingly buffeted by overblown future schlock. Most of all, it is useful to try to understand why the predictions about the 1970s so often came to nought...