Word: nams
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Chinese invasion of Viet Nam and the Soviet warnings of armed retaliation against China produced a new convulsion in a world already alarmed by the turmoil in the Middle East and Africa (see WORLD). While the fighting did not immediately involve U.S. interests-indeed the U.S. could take some ironic satisfaction from this conflict among the Communist powers, and in Viet Nam of all places-the prospect of a wider war was deeply disturbing. If the Soviets became involved, would the fighting spread beyond Viet Nam? And was there any way for the U.S. to contain it? "We will...
...China, despite its pretensions of becoming a global force, met with no success in its efforts to prevent a Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. The Soviet Union, despite its nearly one million troops on the Chinese border, was unable to prevent China's openly announced punitive expedition into Viet Nam. The U.S. lost its own direct influence in Indochina in 1975 when the remnants of the once mighty American presence there abandoned the crumbling citadel of Saigon...
Ironically, Hanoi's muscle flexing all over Indochina threatens to weaken further Viet Nam's already seriously strained resources. In addition to the 130,000 troops Hanoi has sent into Cambodia, it has 30,000 in Laos; because 160,000 skilled Laotians have fled the country, Hanoi's troops now have to help run the nation. Meanwhile, Viet Nam's own economy is collapsing. Exports have dropped sharply, and food production is way down; last year the grain crop was a record 4.3 million tons below what was needed to feed Viet Nam...
Inevitably, Viet Nam's woes will increase Hanoi's dependence on Moscow, to which the regime already owes $6 billion. "Through ambition, ineptitude and, one suspects, plain stupidity," says Patrick J. Honey, a longtime Viet Nam analyst at the University of London, "the Vietnamese Communist leaders have brought their own country to the brink of famine and economic ruin. They have provided a foothold for the Soviet Union in Southeast Asia, jeopardized Viet Nam's own national independence and brought the possibility of large-scale conflict to the region once more." As this week began, that possibility...
From Bangkok to Bangor, investors are buying up gold−and paying record prices for it. Scarcely a week goes by without a fresh blast of bad news to push up the value of the mystic metal that thrives on crisis. Viet Nam's invasion of Cambodia, which began late in December, was one such event, but gold's biggest boost lately has been the winter-long turmoil in Iran. As investors have grown fearful of another energy crunch, the price has surged from under $200 per oz. in mid-autumn to a record $254 two weeks...