Word: westing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Hungarian uprising by telling Moscow's new parliament that the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan had "blatantly violated" the law. By doing so, he implied that events like the 1956 Hungarian crackdown and the 1968 Czechoslovakian invasion would not recur. In addition, with a candor rare even in the West, Shevardnadze said of the controversial Krasnoyarsk radar station in Siberia: "Let's admit that this monstrosity the size of the Egyptian pyramid has been sitting there in direct violation of the ABM treaty." (His fealty to the treaty was in part motivated by a desire to drive a stake through America...
When Gorbachev first spoke of "new thinking" in foreign policy, many in the West -- especially in the U.S. -- doubted his sincerity. The real test was whether Gorbachev would end the policy at the heart of the cold war: the subjugation of Eastern Europe. At the end of last year, in a speech at the United Nations, Gorbachev declared that he would. "Freedom of choice is a universal principle," he said. Yet the doubts lingered. They always seemed to come down to the question: Is Gorbachev for real...
...point to avoid reconsidering the roles of the two military alliances. One of Worner's predecessors, Britain's Lord Ismay, said the goal of NATO was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down." As the Soviet threat recedes, NATO could serve to keep the West Germans, if not down, at least tethered to the West. The organization's purpose would become more political: preventing the Continent from reverting to the spasmodic shifts in national alliances that sparked centuries of wars. The twelve-nation European Community is likewise poised to play a leading role in belaying...
Instead, Bush could challenge Gorbachev with courage and imagination. He could ask the Soviets to join the West in making enormous, fundamental cuts in defense spending. This would not be naive pacifism but hardheaded self- interest. It could be a boon to the deficit-choked American economy as well as to perestroika. Rather than negotiating trims in a few weapons programs, Bush could propose demobilizing significant portions of each side's military, testing whether Gorbachev would go along with dismantling whole divisions and reconfiguring forces so as to create a less dangerous world...
...postwar era was launched with a speech by Harry Truman outlining a presidential vision of containment. Similarly, Bush could launch a postcontainment era by propounding a bold swords-into-plowshares scheme for a fundamental change in East-West relations. Such a clarion call for a radical new Bush Doctrine could command the bipartisan support that accompanied the Truman Doctrine. It could also, at the very least, regain for the U.S. the initiative on the world stage. And, who knows? Gorbachev might go along. More surprising things have happened this year...