Word: vain
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Only after the fact did Shultz learn that former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane and North had traveled to Tehran in May 1986 in a vain effort to free all U.S. hostages. Even then, Shultz was not told that missile parts had been part of the aborted bargain...
...straight out of hell. Sprawled across the floor in the 100 degrees heat lay the naked bodies of 18 other young men. In their efforts to escape from the locked boxcar, they left gashes on the wood lining of the heavy metal door and used railroad spikes in a vain attempt to gouge through the floor. They had removed their clothes to lessen the effect of the intense heat, also to no avail. Some had chewed their tongues during convulsions, spilling blood on their cast-off clothing...
...would-be Soviet emigre, Geneticist David Goldfarb. These incidents demonstrate his unusual role as a back-channel conduit between U.S. and Soviet officials. They also reflect the pragmatic approach Hammer takes toward the Soviets, his business partners on and off since the early 1920s. Readers will search in vain for indignation about the Soviet record on human rights. They will find instead a cuddly Lenin, a reasonable Gorbachev and a host of other blandly invoked leaders. Hammer calls himself an ardent capitalist; apparently this customer is always right...
...referring to the strike against the Stark, President Reagan said the 37 sailors killed did not die in vain. My definition of "dying in vain" includes being killed in your bed without knowing you are in danger and without firing a shot. In the future, whenever the U.S. undertakes a mission into a hostile area, the Government should plan for the inevitable risks. Let's leave senseless martyrdom to others...
...victim, Singleton, 59, was paroled from a California jail last month after serving nearly eight years of a 14-year four-month sentence. But Singleton, a model prisoner who maintains his innocence, immediately found himself to be a pariah, staying in a string of motels as authorities tried in vain in California, Florida and Nevada to find a welcoming town...