Word: gunboat
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...been poking about where it has no apparent business. In the past five weeks, at least ten Russian craft have played nautical cat and mouse with the Norwegians. Says Norway's chief of defense staff, General Sverre Hamre: "We seem to be subject to something like old-fashioned gunboat diplomacy...
...trespassing began on June 27, when a Soviet tugboat and three smaller vessels anchored off the Nordkyn Peninsula in the Barents Sea. The Soviet captains claimed to be seeking shelter from bad weather. The often stormy northern seas were calm at the time. The boats left after a Norwegian gunboat was dispatched to escort them out of the area...
...weeks later, the Soviet timber freighter Kliloi hove to, also near the Nordkyn Peninsula. It beat a retreat when another gunboat approached. The same day, the tanker Kochetov steamed into Vardo harbor, claiming there was an injured man aboard. So there was?but, strangely, it would have been easier for the craft to return to Murmansk...
There is widespread support for maintaining the Navy's ability to engage when necessary in some old-fashioned gunboat diplomacy, especially in situations in which there is no direct U.S.-Soviet confrontation. An American warship making a port call or steaming off the coast of a Third World country might indeed bolster a regime friendly to Washington. In a period of mounting local tensions, sending naval units to strategically important regions, such as the Persian Gulf and eastern Mediterranean, could dissuade the Soviets from intervening...
...controversies as U.S. control over the Canal Zone. There is matter enough for him in history. The isthmus belonged to Colombia until 1903, when the U.S., under Teddy Roosevelt, encouraged a local revolt and sent American warships to block the landing of Colombian troops. Congressional doves objected to the gunboat diplomacy, but they were drowned out by T.R.'s perorations on manifest destiny. With the birth of the U.S.-sponsored Republic of Panama, the witty Secretary of War, Elihu Root, told his President, "You have shown that you were accused of seduction and you have conclusively proved that...