Word: threats
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most important evidence of Deng's strength may be the unexpected appointment of Jiang. The beefy Shanghai official does not have any national power base or ties to the army, which makes him no threat to anyone in the hierarchy and thoroughly beholden to those who appointed him. As a tough- minded disciplinarian and agile implementer of policy, he is an ideal Secretary. "Deng is once again very much a hands-on leader," said a senior British diplomat...
...Without a Warsaw Pact threat, NATO may gradually dissolve. Likewise, the denuclearization of Europe could become nearly total. Appealing as this may sound, it could endanger the armed balance that has kept the peace since 1945. The cold war was also a cold peace: now in its 45th year, the era that historian John Lewis Gaddis calls the "long peace" is surpassing the stable stretches imposed by Metternich and then Bismarck in the 19th century. One reason is that nuclear weapons made localized wars and territorial disputes too dangerous to allow. They also made a direct confrontation between East...
This time, it appeared, the worst had been averted. The vessel's two reactors were shut down, and no fatalities were reported. Soviet officials insisted there had been no venting of radiation, thus no threat to people or the environment; Norwegian tests showed no unusual radiation in the area. Nonetheless, the accident dealt another blow to the prestige of the world's largest undersea fleet...
Experts say the environmental threat posed by the nuclear reactors and atomic weapons lost at sea is small. Reactors are contained in casings so strong that they remain intact even under the tremendous pressure of very deep water; missiles crumple at great depth but will not detonate unless they are electronically "armed" -- something that would only happen in wartime. NATO intelligence has confirmed that nine reactors and 50 nuclear weapons of various sizes are resting on ocean floors. Said one Danish official: "Nuclear things don't just go off, but the idea of these weapons and reactors rusting away...
...reduce the number of Soviet diplomats in the U.S. The State Department had resisted the bureau's initiative on the ground that the Soviets would retaliate by cutting the number of local Soviet employees allowed at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. That led to bitter disputes about the espionage threat posed by these local employees and about other security issues. By 1985 low- level warfare had broken out between Ambassador Hartman and security officials in Washington. "There was bad blood; there's no question about that," recalls a diplomat who served at the embassy. The 1987 Marine spy scandal appeared...