Word: spasms
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Eisenhower's third illness in office, a minor stroke suffered in November 1957, kept him inactive for no more than 72 hours. Nonetheless, this "spasm" was clearly an awesome experience for him. In Waging Peace, a book that is generally short on personal insights and long on familiar facts, Ike discusses his reactions in detail...
...study, On Escalation: Metaphors and Scenarios, argues that high-intensity war has a rationale. He identifies 44 stages of escalation, ranging from "Ostensible Crisis," in which no bridges are burned (Rung 1), through "Constrained Force-Reduction Salvo against weak links at the outbreak of a war" (Rung 35) to "Spasm or Insensate War" with "all buttons pressed." His point: controlled response is as possible with thermonuclear artillery as it was with the howitzers of vore...
...into the water to fight for another two hours. Their killer instinct lingers even after death. At Ocean City, Md., not long ago, a tourist walked past the corpse of a mako lying on the dock, carelessly brushing its head with his foot. Ka-chung! With a sudden muscle spasm, the dead mako sank its fangs into the passerby...
...merit of the McNamara doctrine, according to Aron, is that it reduces the immediate danger of "nuclear spasm," as American theorists refer to all-out war. But it does so at the cost of increasing the likelihood of conventional or guerrilla wars in which (since massive retaliation is not as imminent) firmness of intent may be tested. Thus Aron speaks of both Russia and the U.S. wielding conventional "swords" behind a nuclear "shield," as the U.S. did when it used the Navy to stop Russian ships during the Cuban missile crisis. The act was possible because of local American superiority...
...somehow symbolized by Mississippi's respected John Stennis, who had scarcely warmed to his subject when he clutched his throat, staggered slightly, fell into his seat. "Get me some water," he gasped to alarmed Senate aides. As it turned out, Stennis had suffered only a temporary throat spasm - a hazard of the trade - and soon recovered...