Word: withering
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...total collapse of the Soviet Union might create almost as many global problems as it solved. Regional despotisms like Fidel Castro's Cuba or Najibullah's Afghanistan would probably wither quickly, as might many Third World Communist insurgencies. The U.S. economy would benefit handsomely from vastly reduced defense expenditures. But the blessings of a Soviet collapse would certainly be mixed. Just as the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I led to Hitler's brutal exploitation of the resulting power vacuum, so the end of the Pax Sovietica in Eurasia might touch off an ethnic bloodbath among...
...genius may be to recognize that he can achieve the old ends by different means. The demilitarization and economic liberalization of Eastern Europe, even up to and including a reunified Germany, might well result in the kind of safe, neutralized continent Moscow has long sought. The U.S. role would wither, and the Soviet Union, the largest land power, would be free to dominate. Josef Joffe, foreign editor of the Munich newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, argues that decay of the East bloc is not harmful to the Soviet Union as long as it does not proceed more quickly than the loosening...
...scheduled to hold presidential elections in the next two years, some populist candidates lure voters with promises of radical solutions to break the debt squeeze. Unless the region's scarce capital can be shifted away from foreign- debt payment back into economic growth, the frail bloom of democracy could wither...
While porn lines may wither, the dial-up industry is likely to thrive by attracting plenty of legitimate entrepreneurs. It has become a haven for people who have ample imagination but a shortage of capital. W. Brooks McCarty, 38, a former Los Angeles ad executive, invested $35,000 two years ago to start a dial-up service that listed job openings. McCarty's company, National Telephone Information Network, now offers 30 different services, which dispense tips on travel, business and other subjects. This year's expected revenue: $10 million...
...current drought has dramatized these conflicts, but it did not cause them, nor will its end resolve them. In the Midwest and Southeast, farmers watching their crops wither this summer are simply victims of lack of rain, a circumstance that should improve next year if not next month. But in the West the water shortage is not just a freak of nature. Los Angeles receives 9 in. of rainfall a year and Phoenix only 8, vs. 40 in. of precipitation for Chicago. Almost all the U.S. flatlands west of the 100th meridian, which runs from Texas to North Dakota, consistently...