Word: evens
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Washington obviously hopes that the Shah's leavetaking will lead to the release of the hostages, even though the first reaction of their Iranian captors was not promising. "This will make no difference whatsoever," said a spokeswoman for the militants about the Shah's departure...
There is considerable skepticism, however, even in the U.S. Government, that economic retaliation of any kind will provide enough pressure on Iran to force the hostages' release. Confides a Government economist: "There may be a lot of wishful thinking by the Administration on this. Businessmen are very resourceful. Wherever there is a buck to be made, there is always going to be a sizable group of clever people who will get around an obstacle, even an outright embargo." U.N. sanctions against trade with Rhodesia since 1966 and against arms sales to South Africa since 1977 have posed no insurmountable...
...Iran in 1978 totaled about $3.7 billion a year and included 25% of Iran's food imports and most of the replacement parts for its weapons and capital machinery. Administration officials maintain that the freeze has furthermore deprived Iran of basic imports such as cooking oils, tires and even valves for Tehran's water supply system. Insisted one Administration spokesman: "The way we see it, the Iranians should start to get cold and hungry this time next month...
...Even if the Carter Administration could find ways of making sanctions against Iran stick, they would have little effect over the short run. Concludes Harald Malmgren, a respected international economist and consultant in Washington: "The U.S. near term leverage is simply less than it appears. No matter what the U.S. does economically, Iran can make this thing drag on for many more months to come...
...news brownout, a month of "self-restraint" unparalleled in American life. Johnny Carson confesses on TV that he is having a harder time with his opening monologues; Art Buchwald, who gets most of his humor columns out of topical events, hasn't done a single column about Iran. Even presidential candidates have been biting their tongues about Iran, except for Connally's early macho outburst and Teddy Kennedy's intemperate denunciation of the Shah. In this distorted situation, nightly television news has done the poorest job of balancing its coverage...