Word: pullout
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...they could do to cushion the blow. The controlled press in the U.S.S.R. for months has been running lurid depictions of Los Angeles as a sinkhole of smog, drugs and pornography, and has even been warning that Soviet Olympic athletes might be kidnaped there. The announcement of the actual pullout from the Games was carefully timed to coincide less with the arrival of the Olympic flame in New York than with the Soviet national holiday celebrating victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. And then it was heavily downplayed?a short story on the back page of Pravda...
POLITICS. This, everyone agrees, is the fundamental reason for the pullout. The Soviet leaders, beset by economic troubles at home, unable to prevent the deployment of U.S. nuclear missiles in Western Europe and still burning over Reagan's characterization of them as "the focus of evil in the modern world," are in an angry and frustrated mood. They will do nothing even passively that might conceivably boost Reagan's standing, but on the contrary will seize every opportunity to embarrass him in an election year...
Reagan so far has reacted calmly. When White House Chief of Staff James Baker whispered the news of the Soviet pullout to the President as he sat through a luncheon commemorating the 100th birthday of Harry Truman, Reagan merely frowned and murmured, "Oh, no." He said nothing in public for 24 hours, and then took a calculated tone of sorrow rather than anger. Said the President: "It ought to be remembered by all [that] the Games more than 2,000 years ago started as a means of bringing peace between the Greek city-states. And in those days, even...
...impact of a Moscow pullout will be mostly indirect. No one was counting on the Soviet Union or its satellites to provide more than a tiny fraction of the 600,000 tourists expected to visit Los Angeles during the 16 days of Olympic competition. The big question was whether popular U.S. interest in the Games, abetted by one of the most intensive publicity campaigns ever mounted for a sports event, could be sustained with so many star performers missing. On the answer rode millions of dollars in sales of everything from air fares to souvenir trinkets, as well...
Politics dogs power. In part the Soviet pullout appears to be a getting-even with Jimmy Carter's 1980 boycott after the invasion of Afghanistan. But since the Soviets were always intent on showing their displeasure with Ronald Reagan, they could have chosen no better theater...