Word: sterne
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...upshot was a stern warning from the State Department. "Recent developments in Italy," said State, "have increased the level of our concern. Our position is clear: we do not favor [Communist participation in government] and would like to see Communist influence in any Western European country reduced. The U.S. and Italy share profound democratic values and interests, and we do not believe that the Communists share those values and interests." That kind of language, while several decibels below the threatening warnings of Henry Kissinger, nonetheless marked a new high point of concern by the Carter Administration on the subject...
...Laurence Stern...
...triumphs have had one father. His one unmitigated debacle is an orphan. It was the Cyprus crisis of 1974, a chain of coup, invasion, countercoup and embargo that left the southern flank of NATO in chaos and U.S. prestige in the Eastern Mediterranean at an ebb. Laurence Stern, a veteran reporter on national security for the Washington Post, has written a compact and compelling account of the affair. He traces U.S. policy from the Truman Doctrine of 1947 to Clark Clifford's inconclusive mediation mission earlier this year, but he concentrates on the American missteps in the summer...
With good reason, claims Stern. Kissinger ignored U.S. intelligence predictions of the plot against Makarios, thus missing a chance to head off the crisis. Worse, he allowed the Greek junta to think it had tacit U.S. approval for its plot. In the tense week after Makarios' ouster, while the rest of the world was condemning Sampson and his backers in Athens, the Secretary of State did not disguise his relief at the defeat of Makarios, whom he had long regarded as a mercurial, left-leaning troublemaker. By his refusal to denounce the coup, Kissinger seemed to tilt toward Sampson...
...events in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1974 add up to an episode that the former Secretary would rather not remember. Stern's lucid and convincing treatment guarantees that the world will not forget it. -Strobe Talbott