Word: archvillain
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...development. With establishment journals publishing criticism of Lenin, says Dimitri Simes of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, "nothing about Communism is sacred any longer in the Soviet Union." Robert Legvold, director of Columbia University's Harriman Institute, does not expect Lenin to go from icon to archvillain. "Lenin will be given an honorary place in Soviet history as the founder of the country," says he. "Yet, just as U.S. historians can show the warts of George Washington, Soviet historians will be able to do the same with Lenin...
...part of the state of siege. Six magazines were closed down indefinitely, including Hoy, the journal of the centrist Christian Democratic Party. The London-based Reuters wire service had to close its operations in Santiago after transmitting a profile of Pinochet that referred to the President as an "archvillain." The Italian news agency ANSA was also shut down for disseminating what the government called "tendentious and false information that has offended the armed forces...
Take the Philippines. It is widely suggested that Marcos was an archvillain from the start and that only U.S. support kept him in power. The fact is that despite deep and beneficial American influence, Philippine society has always had difficulty in sustaining democracy. When Marcos declared martial law, the country was in violent turmoil. For years his regime was quite tolerable because it provided stability, and supporting Marcos was a sound U.S. policy --up to a point. Exactly when that point was reached is hard to determine. It can be argued that the U.S. should have pulled back from Marcos...
...longer is the Soviet approach to the outside world epitomized by Andrei Gromyko, the man who made iron pants, stone walls and, of course, nyet so much a part of the vocabulary of diplomacy. Under Gromyko, Soviet foreign policy was much like WrestleMania's archvillain Nikolai Volkoff, whose technique consists of grappling his opponent to the mat and sitting on him. With Gromyko kicked upstairs to the largely ceremonial post of President and Gorbachev's protege Eduard Shevardnadze in charge of the Foreign Ministry, Soviet diplomacy now resembles Ivan Drago, the sleek and powerful Soviet boxer portrayed in the movie...
...charge out of setting the leaning tower of Pisa aright. Director Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night, Petulia) paces the jokes to his trademarked sprung rhythm and sees that they are deftly executed by his engaging cast. Vaughn may lack the top-dog malevolence needed for an archvillain, but he communicates the fun he had playing the role. O'Toole, whose cheerleader beauty has too often been camouflaged on TV and in bad movies, blossoms here into that rare Hollywood star: someone who can make goodness seem sexy...