Word: tanked
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...unable to bring his firepower to bear. Gorbachev's drive for reform across all strata of society had left fault lines among the military as well, and the coup rapidly widened them. The air force stood aside altogether, refusing orders to participate. As for the army, the 10 tank crews that defected to Boris Yeltsin symbolized the greater number of soldiers who refused to countenance the violent overthrow of the government. Even troopers nominally supporting the junta were reluctant to fight...
...SOLDIERS: DON'T SHOOT MOTHERS AND SISTERS. Clearly the soldiers had orders not to use force. One of a dozen soldiers who marched to the central telegraph office on Tverskaya Street, when confronted by outraged Muscovites, showed them that the clip of his automatic weapon was empty. When the tanks did move, people were ready with gasoline-filled bottles (named, of course, after the old Stalinist V.M. Molotov). Tank drivers, even paratroop commanders, defected to the resistance. Miners went on strike...
There are clear signs that Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms are taking hold even in the Soviet military. According to U.S. intelligence sources, annual tank production has dropped from 3,500 in 1988 to just 800, and similar cutbacks are taking place on Air Force assembly lines. While the Soviet navy remains the lone holdout against perestroika by continuing a nuclear-carrier program, there are encouraging signs of change there too. The Severodvinsk shipyards have produced a tourist submarine, complete with large glass viewing portholes and devices for picking things up off the ocean floor...
...fire-breathing cover story in the July Atlantic, Alan Tonelson of the Economic Strategy Institute, a Washington think tank, denounces the "irrelevance of our recent foreign policy, and even its victories, to the concerns of most Americans." The U.S., he says, should junk the idea of "exercising something called leadership" and "insulate" itself from the disasters of the Third World. He would also have the U.S. abandon "overseas missions that, however appealing, bear only marginally on protecting and enriching the nation." The list of activities he believes so qualify includes "promoting peace, stability, democracy and development around the world...
That sentiment is not nearly as evident in the port city of Massawa, which was bombed repeatedly by Mengistu's forces. Few buildings remain whole. Children play in the rubble with toys made from tank parts while abandoned Kalashnikovs rust in the hot, humid air. "What are we free from?" complains Tirhas, 20, a teacher who would not give her full name...