Word: sidra
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When U.S. fighters downed a pair of Libyan jets last August, two choruses sounded in counterpoint: "Hooray! We've finally put Viet Nam behind us!" and, from the other side of the stage, "Beware! The Gulf of Sidra may be another Gulf of Tonkin!" (thus the onstage, with clanking chains, the ghost of the 1964 naval skirmish off the coast of Viet Nam, which Lyndon Johnson used as a pretext to escalate American involvement there...
...late July, a Libyan group called the Free Unionist Officers threatened a campaign of "physical liquidation" against Americans, including President Reagan. Then, in mid-August, came the attack by two Libyan SU-22 fighter planes against a pair of U.S. F-14s as they flew over the Gulf of Sidra during a naval exercise by the U.S. Sixth Fleet in disputed waters that Libya had long claimed as part of its territory. The U.S. planes downed the Libyan jets...
...plane, Air Force One; shooting rockets at his limousine; and attacking him with handguns. The alleged motive for the Libyan assault: Gaddafi's determination to seek revenge after U.S. military planes returned the fire of two Libyan aircraft and shot them down over the Gulf of Sidra in August. A Libyan government spokesman in Tripoli dismissed the reports as a product of "the CIA fantasy farm." Said he: "There is no such hit team working under orders from the Libyan [government...
Rumors that Libya would attempt some type of dramatic revenge have been circulating ever since U.S. pilots downed two Libyan jets in a dogfight over the Gulf of Sidra last August. Haig and others have spoken of a "hit list" of potential U.S. targets. Although Libya has labeled these claims "insolent in the extreme," security around American leaders has been significantly tightened in recent weeks. Secret Service agents carrying UZI submachine guns have been notably more prominent at Reagan's side during public appearances. Air Force One and other official planes have been equipped with devices to foil heat...
...five and ten Libyans was rounded up in Rome and sent back to Tripoli. Since then, unconfirmed reports have circulated in Paris that Gaddafi was planning assaults on other selected U.S. embassies and personnel in Europe in retaliation for the U.S. downing two Libyan fighters in the Gulf of Sidra last summer...