Word: downplay
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...officials were apprehensive that Gorbachev had raised "the level of expectations for the summit" by dangling hints of a sharp reduction in nuclear weapons only if the U.S. would stop development of its Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), commonly known as Star Wars. White House Spokesman Larry Speakes tried to downplay any idea of substantive arms-control bargaining at the summit. Said Speakes: "The important thing is to get to this meeting, to have the two men look each other over, size each other up, lay out their views on these various topics and then be able to set an agenda...
...long period of time." A top Pentagon official gave this damage assessment: "Some of our secrets in submarine warfare, amphibious operations and weaponry, communications coding systems, intelligence gathered by the Navy, and carrier tactics." When some newspaper reports, based mainly on sources in the much embarrassed Navy, tried to downplay the ring's impact, Pentagon Spokesman Michael Burch offered a grim rebuttal: "From what we are continuing to learn, we know now that the damage evaluation has gone...
There has been a tendency on the part of the American media to downplay both the Sandinistas' repression and the threat to their neighbors. Part of this has to do with the whole Viet Nam syndrome, the press worrying about how "we're going to end up on the wrong side of history" or "we're going to get a little bit pregnant here." There has also been a little too much equanimity, a tendency to say, "So what? What difference does it make?" Well, what difference does it make who is in charge of little Cuba? It makes...
WHILE WE wholeheartedly agree that President Bok must make himself more personally accountable to his divestiture critics, we cannot, as the majority does, downplay Bok's conspicuous absence throughout the two day period of last week's pro-divestiture rally and subsequent vigil outside Massachusetts Hall. That absence bespeaks a caution and arrogance that has made Bok a first-rate lawyer-and a third-rate leader...
...despite Masters's efforts to downplay House stereotypes, most freshmen said images will play a big role in their choice...