Word: pacts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...protesters linked hands to mark the 50th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, which included secret protocols that cleared the way for the annexation of the Baltics by the U.S.S.R. during World War II. In a sharply worded declaration, a coalition of popular-front leaders denounced the Soviet occupation and demanded the right to "restore independent statehood." The day before, a special commission of the Lithuanian parliament had declared that the U.S.S.R.'s annexation of the republic in 1940 was invalid, flatly contradicting Moscow's denial that the protocols had any bearing on absorption...
...buttress its military strategy, Japan forged ties with another international outcast -- Germany. In 1936 they signed a pact to oppose Communism that included secret protocols to come to the other's aid during a war with the Soviet Union. With Berlin balancing out Moscow, Tokyo accelerated its conquest of China with another "incident." On July 7, 1937, a Japanese soldier stationed near Beijing's Marco Polo Bridge left his post to urinate. His superiors announced that he had been abducted by a nearby Chinese garrison and began shelling the unit. Japanese forces soon overran eastern China...
...victory for reformers. In East Germany the government sought to rid itself of malcontents by handing out unprecedented numbers of exit permits, while thousands of other unhappy citizens simply fled over the Hungarian border. In Poland the Communist Party Politburo marked the 50th anniversary of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact -- whose secret protocols resulted in the partition of Poland at the onset of World War II -- by denouncing the agreement as a violation of "sanctified moral norms of international coexistence." Lest anyone miss the point, Polish opposition leader Lech Walesa spelled it out in an interview with an Italian newspaper...
...heart of Lebanon's misery is a 1943 "national pact" reaffirming that the predominance of power would be held by the majority Christian community. Since then, the Muslim population has overwhelmed the Christian count, but the political arrangements have not been altered to reflect the Muslims' strength. Until that imbalance is redressed, tribal hostilities will not cease...
Though Hitler had made no pretense of declaring war on Poland -- with which he had signed a ten-year nonaggression pact in 1934 -- the British and French response to his attack was glacial in its formality. Not until 10 a.m. did the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, summon the German charge d'affaires to ask if he had any explanation for this "very serious situation." The charge admitted only that the Germans were defending themselves against a Polish attack...