Word: reasonable
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...dozen years has the Pentagon been able to close a major military base, even though some of the installations it operates -- at a cost of billions to the taxpayers -- were built to help fend off marauding Indians or troublemaking Redcoats. The reason? Not Pentagon profligacy, for once, but political pork...
Other questions about group dynamics abound. Among the foremost: Should women be included on a Mars expedition? If so, what about sex? No one likes to talk publicly about that, admits NASA Flight Surgeon Patricia Santy. "There's no reason, even in a highly motivated professional crew, that the same kind of sexual tensions that develop here in offices aren't going to develop in space." Santy believes women should be included in the crew. If they are, she says, there should be at least two -- both for mutual support and to avoid disruptive sexual entanglements aloft. Former Astronaut Michael...
...priority on domestic economic reform in both countries is the principal reason for the improvement in Sino-Soviet relations. Both Deng and Gorbachev are looking for a peaceful international climate that will make it easier for them to divert resources to the industrial, agricultural and consumer sectors. The Chinese welcome Gorbachev's declared willingness to rely less on the threat or use of force in Soviet foreign policy. Says General Wang Zhenxi, deputy director of foreign-army studies of the Chinese Military Science Academy in Beijing: "Should Gorbachev's domestic reforms be successful, it would be helpful for world peace...
Nevertheless, Dukakis' support for a stronger conventional defense seems more intellectual -- and politically calculated -- than visceral. He does not seem as passionate about it as, say, his denunciations of the contras. One reason his support for a conventional buildup seems to lack conviction is that it runs smack into his penchant for holding down costs. The dirty little secret about nuclear weapons is that they are a cheap way to counter Soviet advantages in geography and numerical strength...
Cost considerations, rather than strategic ones, are the main reason Dukakis opposes most new nuclear weapons, including mobile missiles. The argument for them is compelling: they would be far less vulnerable to a pre-emptive strike. But when his Cambridge experts delve into such things as "aim points" and "kill ratios" in discussing nuclear strategies, Dukakis has a worrisome tendency to wave away such talk as "abstract theology" about how many warheads can dance on the head of a pin. "Some of the arcane scenarios that we nuclear strategists see, he doesn't believe are reasonable," says his top foreign...