Word: gulf
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first, the incident seemed like another deadly confrontation in the Persian Gulf between the armed forces of the U.S. and Iran. But the affair quickly developed into something far worse. On Sunday morning the Navy cruiser U.S.S. Vincennes, while battling several Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz, mistakenly shot down an Iranian commercial airliner. Iran said the Airbus A300 "exploded in the sky," killing all 298 people on board. Officers on the Vincennes had believed the aircraft was an Iranian F-14 fighter jet that was attacking the U.S. ship. The tragedy immediately invited comparison with the 1983 downing...
...read a statement from President Reagan, who had been awakened at Camp David at 4:52 a.m. and told of the new fighting. "I am saddened to report," said the President, "that it appears that in a proper defensive action by the U.S.S. Vincennes this morning in the Persian Gulf, an Iranian airliner was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz. This is a terrible human tragedy. Our sympathy and condolences go out to the passengers, crew and their families." At 1:30 p.m. a tense and obviously tired Admiral William Crowe, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...
...incident seemed certain to escalate the confrontation in the gulf between the U.S. and Iran. Declared Radio Tehran: "America's crime today in downing an Iranian Airbus is . . . new evidence of American crimes and mischiefs, crimes which expose America's nature more than ever before...
Granted, the joint U.S.-international presence in the Gulf will not, by itself, quell Iranian revolutionary ambitions or safeguard the region's oil reserves. Other steps are desirable as well, such as an international arms embargo and a boycott of Iranian oil. The only problem is that, so far, such diplomatic efforts have stalled, as China and the Soviet Union have refused to join an arms embargo...
...alternative to the current policy, a unilateral American pullout from the Gulf, would merely take the pressure off Iran at a point when it is feeling the full impact of a war it has glorified, enhance the stature of those radicals in Iran who call for violence and not negotiation, and weaken U.S. credibility once again in the Middle East. No wonder Iranian officials are seizing the initiative after this incident to demand an American withdrawal...