Word: soften
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...majority of a Philippine inquiry commission charged that some of Marcos' military commanders, including his close friend and top general, Fabian Ver, had been behind the murder of Opposition Leader Benigno Aquino when he returned to the islands last year. Even the State Department felt compelled to soften Reagan's remarks. Said Spokesman John Hughes: "I think there is certainly recognition on everybody's part that there are other forces working for democratic change in the Philippines...
...contrast, Ferraro, the three-term Congresswoman from Queens, was uncharacteristically subdued in her speaking style, making an obvious effort to soften a sometimes barking delivery for television. Her sharp-tongued sparkle plays well to partisans, but rankles many undecided voters. Yet Ferraro did cast the most telling blows of the debate, at one point effectively admonishing the Vice President for being "patronizing" toward her on a foreign affairs issue...
...soften the comandante's stern image, Nicaragua's New York-based public affairs consultant coaxed Ortega out of his customary green fatigues and into preppie tweeds. The revolutionary leader wowed Manhattan intellectuals at the august New York Athletic Club, elicited impassioned shouts from students at Harvard, was feted by civil rights leaders in Atlanta and was lionized by screen stars at a Beverly Hills lawn party. An internal Sandinista memo brashly stated the visitor's goal as "literally invading the U.S. media...
Gromyko's surprising acceptance came after a yearlong effort by some members of the Administration to soften Reagan's confrontational approach. On Jan. 16, Reagan offered an olive branch to the Soviet Union in the form of a conciliatory foreign policy address. A few days later, Secretary of State George Shultz met with Gromyko in Stockholm to feel out the Soviets' receptivity to a more flexible strategic missile-limitation plan. The meeting was unproductive. Worse still, the Kremlin kept up a steady drumbeat of harsh anti-Reagan rhetoric...
...Democrats are going to come at us very hard on the fairness issue. The perception of unfairness in the Reagan Administration is about where it was a year ago, except among older, retired voters, who are supporting the President more than they did earlier. We felt the recovery would soften the fairness issue somewhat...