Word: nation
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...appalling result of America's fixation with firearms was disclosed last week. A study by the National Center for Health Statistics found that 3,392 children ages 1 through 19 were killed in homicides, suicides and accidents with guns in 1987, accounting for 11% of deaths in that age group. No nation comes close to the U.S. in such fatalities. In 1985 not a single teenage male was the victim of gun-related homicide in England or Sweden...
...strongest endorsement to date of Gorbachev's efforts. "Any uncertainty about the fate of reform in the Soviet Union," said Baker, "is all the more reason, not less, for us to seize the present opportunity." President Bush likewise abandoned a timid U.S. attitude when he granted Hungary most-favored-nation trading status and declared, "We are privileged to participate in a very special moment in human history. We are witnessing an unprecedented transformation of Communist nations into pluralistic democracies with market economies...
...trip laden with symbolism, Gorbachev visited neighboring Finland, a dexterous nation that has maintained friendly relations with Moscow while retaining political and economic independence. "Finlandization" used to be derided as a form of latter-day appeasement that might infect Western Europe; now it is considered a model for the relationship that Poland or Hungary could achieve...
Gorbachev is clearly motivated by his nation's desperate internal situation. Perestroika, which aims to radically restructure the Soviet economy, has so far succeeded only in disrupting the clanky old centralized-state system that at least belched forth a few second-rate consumer goods for the store shelves. Now those shelves are barer than they have been for 20 years, there are rumors of looming food riots this winter, and Gorbachev is not the hero at home that he is abroad. It is no wonder, then, that the Soviets, as former U.S. arms negotiator Paul Nitze says, "have turned inward...
...Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down." As the Soviet threat recedes, NATO could serve to keep the West Germans, if not down, at least tethered to the West. The organization's purpose would become more political: preventing the Continent from reverting to the spasmodic shifts in national alliances that sparked centuries of wars. The twelve-nation European Community is likewise poised to play a leading role in belaying the nations that are breaking loose from the Soviet orbit...