Word: pretexts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...some SDI was a bargaining chip for getting real agreements; for others it was an excuse to militarize space before the Soviets could; for still others it was a plausible pretext for breaking the antiballistic-missile treaty. Hardly anyone believed the pure-and-simple defensive-shield story that had been sold to the American people in, appropriately, a television cartoon. Hardly anyone, that is, but Reagan. To the horror of those around him, Reagan -- with the amiable way he has of thinking he can sell anything so obviously good as his own intentions -- began to bargain away all ballistic missiles...
...schoolchildren visiting the Kremlin; the U.S.S.R. then blames the attack on West German terrorists, launches an invasion of Central Europe, captures Iceland and rushes the navy into action in an attempt to control the North Atlantic sea-lanes--all as a ruse for grabbing Persian Gulf oil facilities. The pretext serves Clancy better than it does the Soviets: it provides a fine backdrop for his account of strategies and shoot-outs...
...contra leadership wants to increase its operations in Costa Rica because it is aware of the political sensitivities of the southern border. The potential for provoking an incident is much greater in Costa Rica than in Honduras because Costa Rica has more credibility. It has no army. The pretext could be that Nicaragua invaded Costa Rica or Honduras, opening the way for a U.S. intervention...
...AIDS can be transmitted by casual contact, the Justice Department ruled that an employer who genuinely fears a spread of contagion can fire an AIDS victim without violating his federal civil rights. Snapped a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union: "The decision is nothing more than a pretext for discrimination." And in California, an initiative that could prohibit AIDS victims from attending or teaching school and working in restaurants was certified for placement on the November ballot. The measure was put forward by followers of the perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche...
...pressuring the press to withhold information strikingly similar to what was being openly disclosed in the Baltimore court. As the trial got under way, NSA Director William Odom and CIA Director William Casey issued an extraordinary statement admonishing / that the information revealed at the trial should not be a pretext for further disclosures about intelligence methods. Citing the "competing interests" of prosecutorial revelations and the need to protect the national security, the two intelligence chiefs warned reporters against "speculation and reporting details beyond the information actually released at trial." Allan Adler, legislative counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union, called...