Word: fallback
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Despite these warning signals, the U.S. team expected the Russians at least to respond with a counterproposal. Vance had come to Moscow with top-secret "fallback" instructions for a compromise. These were hidden even from members of his own entourage. When some middle-level officials arrived early at the U.S. embassy for a briefing on their side's negotiating position, they found William Hyland at work with a pair of scissors, clipping out the fallback instructions before showing the document to the rest of the party. That evening at the VIP guesthouse in Lenin Hills, there was much grumbling about...
...substantially closer to agreement, he could be criticized for unwisely raising expectations, for wasting U.S. influence, and for improvising showy moves without any serious plan behind them. Said a Washington-based European diplomat: "It is extremely risky; to Europeans it seems even a little bit crazy. There is no fallback position if this fails." While White House Press Secretary Jody Powell agreed that there was "no guarantee of success," he stressed that "without a major effort such as this, the prospects for failure are almost overwhelming." If the U.S. permitted such a failure, added a formal White House statement...
...they have really prepared such fallback positions, the scattered Khmer Rouge could become bothersome bees for the Vietnamese. But that was small consolation; they had lost their country as a result of General Dung's brilliant offensive, and all indications were that there will be a Vietnamese presence in Cambodia for a long time to come...
...resumed open criticism of the government's policies in the belief that their attacks could hardly damage the peace process as much as Begin's tactics have done. "Begin's method of negotiating on the Sinai was a mistake," says Opposition Leader Shimon Peres. "He didn't keep a fallback position. He started from the end, apparently forgetting that negotiations are supposed to result in each side giving something. What else did he expect to give?" Former Labor Premier Yitzhak Rabin makes virtually the same point: "I believe Sadat's conditions in his Knesset speech were his opening position...
...Egypt would consider interim talks as a fallback if Geneva negotiations failed. Syria is against interim agreements. But Saudi Arabia, whose views the Syrians obviously must respect, also favors limited talks to preserve momentum should Geneva not succeed...