Word: vacuum
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...hundreds of thousands of Panamanians, who poured into the streets to mourn their lost leader, the funeral also marked the beginning of an ominous power vacuum after 13 years of relative stability under Torrijos, who ruled the country as head of the powerful National Guard. Said Panama's Archbishop Marcos McGrath: "It puts us at a suspenseful point in the social and political history of our fatherland, and in some degree for Central America and the Third World...
...take heavy casualties in the early days of a conventional war fought with modern weapons. Most weekend-warrior units are not only undermanned, but their equipment is often so crude as to make training exercises a joke. Example: National Guardsmen use ancient radio equipment that still has 1950s-era vacuum tubes. If ordered to Europe, as they would be in case a war broke out, they literally could not talk to the regular Army units they supposedly would fight beside...
...foreign ministry official points out, "Even the one initiative in recent months that we have welcomed here-the lifting of the grain embargo-was motivated solely by domestic political considerations. It was potentially important for your relations with us, yet the decision was made in a foreign policy vacuum. We're waiting to see how that vacuum is finally filled...
More profoundly, some observers of the American scene see an existential vacuum, a widespread sense that life has lost much of its meaning. Argues Philosopher Sidney Hook: "We have abandoned our old-fashioned values. We have given up our old gods. People want things to come easily, they no longer want to work hard, to suffer any pain, to feel any stress or anxiety." Since the turbulence of the 1960s, more and more Americans have come to feel that they have lost control over their lives. Finding Mom, God and apple pie less fulfilling, many have increasingly taken refuge...
...assassination of the popular leader, who had retired from the military in 1977 in order to take office as President and lead Bangladesh back to civilian rule, left a power vacuum in the poverty-stricken country that acting President Abdus Sattar, 75, a mild-mannered moderate, was not likely to fill for long...