Word: finlandized
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Finland has long winters (the ice sometimes lasts until May), long one-word palindromes (up to 15 letters) and long political arguments (it took four months to form a government after the 1970 election). By contrast, Finnish Cabinets themselves are exceedingly short-lived: the 55th in 54 years of independence was dissolved last October by President Urho Kekkonen, who himself has remained in power since 1956. Kekkonen acted primarily because the center-left coalition incumbents could not solve a row over lagging farm incomes...
...Finland, Cabinetmaking is almost a folk art, primarily because there are too many parties. Eight major political groups ranging from Communists to Conservatives are further split by a host of quarreling factions. One Helsinki newspaper utilized a computer, which figured out that because of the splintered groups there were 123 possible combinations. It is virtually certain that the new Cabinet will include the Communists, who have 36 of the 200 parliamentary seats, and exclude the Conservatives (34 seats) because the Soviets are openly hostile to them. What other factions will join the Cabinet is still anyone's guess...
Waldheim's election was the result of the nuanced realities of big-power politics. The U.S. plainly preferred Finland's energetic Max Jakobson, a former journalist and amateur historian who could give the U.N. the leadership that it lacked under the mercurial, vacillating U Thant. But Jakobson's strong qualities made him unacceptable to the Soviets who "know from experience what a tough Finn is like, and didn't want him," as a State Department official put it last week. The Soviets first tried unsuccessfully to persuade U Thant, who is suffering from a bleeding ulcer...
Stalin's success story was dimmed slightly by his failures in Finland, Iran and Turkey. But they were secondary goals. Only one unresolved issue glared on the map in Stalin's office: Germany. To Russia, as to France, indelible memories of German belligerence necessitated top priority for the German question. Ulam sees this preoccupation with Germany as a continuous thread running through postwar Soviet foreign policy. In March, 1947, Molotov suggested a reunified Germany, but the plan was overlooked by the U.S. The 1948 Berlin blockade was not a grasp for a city of 2 million people. Ulam suggests...
...heavily subsidized farmers', the core of Borten's Center Party constituency, fear that their income would drop as much as 40% or 50% if they had to compete with French and German producers. Borten himself would prefer to see Norway aligned with Sweden, Denmark and Finland in the abortive but still discussed Nordek economic grouping. In any case, Borten's abrupt departure may only be a foretaste of political battles to come among Common Market outsiders who must decide whether the benefits of membership are worth the initiation...