Word: moring
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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ABLE TO LEAP logical abysses with a single bound, American leaders have looked at the crisis in Iran and cheerfully decided that it marks a watershed in American foreign policy, an end to the "post-Vietnam era." America's existential agony after Vietnam is over, congressmen and State Department experts...
AQUICK-STRIKE FORCE would be no help to future presidents faced with crisis like the embassy takeover, except to give them one more option that could endanger hostage' lives. But it would be very convenient for future Secretaries of State who might itch to tip the balance in some civil...
Those interests are open to very different interpretations, however; and a careful examination of the arguments for the force reveals more suspect purposes. Senator Gary Hart (D-Colo.), for example, told The New York Times why we need the quick-strike force: "Our forces aren't structured well to intervene...
But the next Henry Kissinger will have his pet mechanized division to send off to the next Angola, thanks to the recent presidential decision to fund the force. The White House, hawkish congressmen and the Pentagon itself are using the fear excited by the embassy takeover to effect a turnabout...
What's worst about this jingoist response is that it obscures the one valuable lesson America might glean from the events in Iran. Air-mobile divisions wouldn't have helped avoid the taking of the hostages; but a more open-minded appraisal of the domestic dynamics of Third World nations...