Word: sovietism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...news sometimes seems to find a rhythm of its own. Often a story starts the week as an event of modest consequence and then unfolds into a major national controversy - and a cover story. So it went last week, as concern over the discovery of up to 3,000 Soviet combat troops in Cuba grew so intense that it threatened ratification of the SALT II agreement, strained U.S.-Soviet relations, and presented the President with a substantial diplomatic dilemma. Observes Otto Friedrich, senior editor in charge of Nation: "When U.S. Senators are saying, 'Get out or no SALT...
...first news conference in almost three months and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance looked far more somber than usual. Just a few days earlier, it had been confirmed and publicly revealed that a combat brigade of between 2,000 and 3,000 Soviet troops is stationed in Cuba?a disclosure that in turn produced a storm of angry reaction in the Senate. Although the State Department had emphasized that the Soviet force "poses no threat to the U.S.," Vance now assessed the situation in more ominous terms. In a solemn voice he told reporters, "We regard this as a very...
...days later, as the tempest grew, Jimmy Carter took to television, both to endorse the Vance warning and to call for "calm and a sense of proportion." Said the President: "We consider the presence of a Soviet combat brigade in Cuba to be a very serious matter and that this status quo is not acceptable." In the terse five-minute statement, Carter confirmed that "we are seriously pursuing this issue with the Soviet Union." But the Soviet force, he stressed, is not an assault force and does not have the capability to attack the U.S. Concluded the President: "This...
...Senate, where many key figures face difficult re-election campaigns, the news of the Soviet troops came at a most sensitive political moment right in the middle of the SALT II treaty debate. SALT'S opponents immediately linked the troops and the treaty, demanding to know how the Soviets could be trusted in an arms-control agreement when they made provocative military moves in the Caribbean. And how could the U.S. claim to be able to monitor weapons development deep inside the Soviet Union when it could get caught by surprise by a Soviet combat brigade 90 miles from Florida...
...even louder voice of protest was that of Democrat Frank Church of Idaho, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and thus formal sponsor of the SALT treaty. Church, who first made public the Soviet move on Aug. 30, dramatically postponed the SALT hearings for a day in order to summon Vance and CIA Chief Stansfield Turner to testify about the combat brigade. Said Church: "There is no likelihood that the Senate would ratify the SALT II treaty as long as Soviet combat troops remain in Cuba...