Word: softener
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...grim backdrop of worrisome economic developments around the world led the U.S. to soften its initially tough stand and agree to speed up the timetable for reaching an accord on the amount each member should contribute. Also the U.S. launched a drive to set up a new "crisis fund" to be tapped in times of real emergency. Most key members seemed responsive to the proposal, which is, for now at least, still largely in the talking stage...
...Cabinet unanimously agreed that "on the basis of these proposals, Israel will not enter into any negotiations with any party whatsoever." U.S. officials expected that initial negative reaction; they hope that Arab interest in the plan as the basis for negotiations, and internal debate within Israel will eventually soften Begin's hard-line stand. There was little public comment from Arab leaders, most of whom will meet at a summit this week in the Moroccan city of Fez. The Arabs, who have formally designated the P.L.O. as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, can hardly endorse Reagan...
...seemed a chilling reminder that 1984 was less than two years away. In an effort worthy of Orwell's Ministry of Truth, experts from the Japanese Ministry of Education had set out to soften references in high school history textbooks to Japan's aggression before and during World War II. The Japanese invasion of China in 1937, for example, became a mere "advance." Passages describing the fall of Nanking seemed to suggest that Japanese atrocities had been provoked by stiff Chinese resistance, and the Korean national uprising against Japanese colonial rule in 1919 was "mob violence...
...spirit of commerce has a tendency to soften the manners of men, and to extinguish those inflammable humours which have so often kindled into...
Even as the Administration embarked on a risky new military-diplomatic venture in the Middle East, it was simultaneously trying to soften the impact of a wholly different foreign policy venture that had all the earmarks of failure. At issue: Ronald Reagan's on-again, off-again attempt to block construction of the $10 billion, 3,500-mile pipeline that will carry Soviet natural gas from Siberia to energy-hungry Western Europe. Washington's opposition to the pipeline, which the allies regard as essential to their economies, has opened a rift that threatens to undermine the solidarity...