Word: nadir
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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DECEMBER is the darkest month. The sun is lowest in the sky. The nights are longest. Yet in its midst?perhaps in their hunger for warmth and light in the nadir of seasons?believers of the Western world have immemorially celebrated hope. In recent years, God has seemed to many as dim as the winter-solstice sun on the horizon. It has been a December of religion. Now, as the days grow longer into the new decade, believers and those who would like to believe are hoping that the long, bleak month is over...
ARVN morale probably reached its nadir in 1965, when the army was losing the equivalent of a battalion a week to the onrushing Communists. From 1965 until last year, most ARVN units were engaged largely in pacification work, while the Americans took over the major combat role. "Naturally," said a U.S. general, "we felt that we could do the job better and faster, and, of course, ARVN worked less and less. Unfortunately, once you imply that a fighting force is second-rate, and treat it that way, it becomes pretty hard to reverse the trend." To G.I.s, South Vietnamese soldiers...
After this nadir, the concert got under way in earnest. The last two movements of the Mozart went quite well. They chose exciting tempi and played with admirable feeling and expression. The final Allegro was particularly pleasing with a nice rhythmic drive, and exactness of nuance, and an attention to phrasing which deserve praise...
...that the Russians had shot down an American U-2 spy plane. Not only was the conference canceled; Ike's planned trip to Russia was vetoed as well, a personal humiliation. The uncertain performance of his Administration, which clumsily lied and backtracked before Eisenhower himself claimed responsibility, marked the nadir of Ike's White House years, and the unhappy memory was only partly counterbalanced by his triumphal tours of world capitals in the last two years of his presidency...
...deeper reason for the out break of contention is that the military is at a nadir of public confidence. Although the Pentagon has no monopoly on blame for Viet Nam ? civilians made the major decisions ? popular frustration vents itself to a large extent on the military command. The Pueblo incident, the Arnheiter affair and technological bobbles like the F-111 have further diminished public trust in the competence of military leadership. Dr. Daniel Fink, a former Pentagon engineer, who has frequently debated on the pro side of ABM, worries about "the belief that these decisions are made...