Word: undercutting
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That embarrassing public disavowal came at an awkward moment for the regime. Not only did it belie government claims that Solidarity's rank and file were disassociating themselves from the alleged excesses of their leaders, it also undercut a carefully orchestrated series of gestures intended to convince the world that all was well after five weeks of martial...
...diplomat last week, and, indeed, the distance between Washington and its NATO allies on a joint response to the crackdown in Poland had seemingly narrowed. Meeting in Brussels, the foreign ministers of the ten-member European Community issued a statement promising that the group would avoid actions that might undercut the sanctions imposed by Washington against Moscow two weeks ago. Then, at a summit meeting with President Reagan that had promised to be a frosty confrontation, West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt for the first time publicly fingered the Soviets for enforcing the repression in Poland...
...Europeans feared that their participation would be taken as an endorsement of Camp David, which would irritate their Arab oil suppliers and undercut their own broader peace initiative. Based on the European Community's 1980 Venice declaration, it calls for associating the P.L.O. with the peace process and for Palestinian "self-determination," a term the Israelis see as a code word for statehood. After intense consultations, the four European countries formally accepted the U.S. invitation to join the M.F.O. But, in effect, they reaffirmed the principles of the Venice declaration...
...speech last week (see NATION), President Reagan moved to seize the opportunity. In.offering to drop plans to deploy U.S. intermediate-range missiles if the Soviets dismantle theirs, he tried, belatedly and for the first time, to allay Europe's roiling fears. He also sought to undercut Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev, who had skillfully exploited America's essential and long-held views on nuclear strategy to portray the Soviet Union as the only superpower devoted to the search for peace (see ESSAY). While Reagan's proposal was hailed by Europe's leaders, the reaction of the peace groups was ambivalent. They...
...second-strike" doctrine; he has denounced the notions both of limited nuclear war and of victory in such a war as dangerous fantasies, and he has floated a proposal for a joint Soviet-American renunciation of first use. That innocent-sounding suggestion is actually thoroughly loaded, since it would undercut the threat of first use on which Western deterrence partially rests...