Word: threatening
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...however, the contras prove that they are a force that can seriously threaten the Sandinistas, attitudes may shift. "At cockfights in Nicaragua, most people won't make a bet until one cock is already bleeding and close to losing the fight," says a Western diplomat. "Nicaraguans want to be on the safe side with the winner. In this war, the people will join in only when the final outcome is absolutely clear to everybody." In the meantime, most will endure, sacrifice and fence-sit as best they...
...overheated charges and countercharges threaten to obscure the real stakes, which are unquestionably high. Supporting the overthrow of a foreign government, even a detestable one, is a radical act that has brought the U.S. to grief before. In the case of Nicaragua, it risks prolonging civil war, justifying further internal repression by the regime and heightening tensions all through the region. Yet Western countries have felt compelled in the past to protect their national interests by interfering with foreign governments. Communist regimes do it almost by definition. Unquestionably, the Sandinistas in pursuit of Soviet-style Marxism pose a genuine threat...
Straddling Central America with harbors on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, Nicaragua is strategically situated to threaten sea-lanes that carry more than half the crude oil imports of the U.S. It is but a half-hour jet flight away from perhaps the most critical "choke point" of all, the Panama Canal. There have been some ominous signs that Nicaragua is preparing to serve as a Soviet base. Warsaw Pact engineers are building a deep-water port on the Caribbean side, "similar," Reagan said in his speech, "to the naval base in Cuba for Soviet-built submarines." Under construction...
...Sandinistas, it can be reasonably argued, are far more likely to keep their promises under the pressure of armed force. Such a carrot-and-stick approach requires fine calibration, a careful assessment of when to deal and when to threaten. It cannot be carried off unless the Sandinistas know that the Administration is not just bluffing--and that Congress will back up the threats with the wherewithal to sustain them...
...Using Nicaragua as a base, the Soviets and Cubans can become the dominant power in the crucial corridor between North and South America. Established there, they will be in a position to threaten the Panama Canal, interdict our vital Caribbean sea lanes, and, ultimately, move against Mexico...