Word: martially
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...Beijing's Tiananmen Square, demanding greater democratization and an end to nepotism and corruption. On Saturday, May 20, with the government and the Chinese capital paralyzed, the curtain rang down ominously on Act I: Premier Li Peng, a principal target of the demonstrators' wrath, and President Yang Shangkun imposed martial law; troops from the People's Liberation Army (P.L.A.) mustered to enter the city...
...last the curtain fell again, with the disturbing clang of a prison door closing. Li Peng appeared on television for the first time since martial law was declared, receiving -- as if to underscore his legitimacy -- a covey of newly arrived ambassadors. The Premier declared that the soldiers would move into Beijing as soon as the city's residents understood the need to restore order. From all available signs, Deng Xiaoping had cast his lot with the hard- line faction headed by Li. The losers were a more reformist group led by party chief Zhao Ziyang. Diplomatic sources said that Zhao...
Though the leaders of the P.L.A. initially seemed torn by the crisis, by week's end most active generals had sided with the hard-liners, out of personal loyalty to Deng and concern for the restoration of order. But a question arose: Could the troops impose martial law without spilling the blood of hundreds and perhaps thousands of fellow Chinese, thereby giving the lie to the army's proud claim to be one with the people...
Much, however, depends on the Beijing regime. Revolutions are usually triggered by the intractability and violence of governments, and the declaration of martial law showed that Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng were prepared to crush the protests with military force. Violence can, and often does, achieve its aim of suppression. It can also galvanize an opposition and make compromise unthinkable...
...Falklands from Argentina to the time the war was won. Whatever the rights and wrongs of either war, announcing the prospect of a battle is leadership; announcing a victory is not. Whether America will actually defend its freedom with blood and money when called upon is -- for all the martial rhetoric and credit-card defense spending of the 1980s -- unproved...