Word: straits
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Thus last week the U.S. picked up a new frontier state more than twice the size of Texas, a vast treasure chest of iced-in natural resources, a strategic base with frontiers on the Bering Strait, three miles from Asia. The U.S. also picked up in Alaska its first noncontiguous state, and thus added a new dimension-and a new promise-to the Union that had grown from Plymouth Rock and Philadelphia through Appomattox and Omaha Beach to become the bulwark of the free world...
Buffoon or not, Shima has a lot to explain. On Oct. 25, 1944, the second day of the historic sea fight, Shima steamed toward Surigao Strait, south of Leyte Gulf, with two heavy cruisers, a light cruiser and four destroyers, still distant from the main battle. He hoped to reach Leyte Gulf in time to harass U.S. landing forces there, but his entire contribution to the battle, as Historian Morison observes, was to ram his flagship into a crippled heavy cruiser of another Japanese force, after firing 16 torpedoes at two islands he mistook for U.S. ships...
Like Magellan. Dr. Speert, 43, subtitles his book Essays in Eponymy, and stoutly defends the oft-criticized practice of naming matters medical for their discoverers. These men are as much entitled to be so commemorated, he suggests, as pioneers in other spheres whose eponyms are undisputed-the Strait of Magellan, Mount Everest, Halley's comet. But his book is for fellow specialists, and he does not advocate that laymen learn the jargon of the clinical conference...
...BATTLE: The Communists held back their big air force from Quemoy-Matsu, but flew out over the Formosa Strait. Result: bitter dogfights between Red MIG-17s and slower Nationalist F-86 Sabres. The MIGs have a capability of 60,000 ft. and 635 knots with afterburner. The Sabres have a top altitude of 48,000 ft. and speed of 600 knots. Yet the Nationalists routed the MIGs. The big difference lay in pilot quality: the Nationalist airmen were eager and carefully trained-their flying time in Sabres alone ranged from 300 to 1,400 hours. The Communists appeared inexperienced...
PROPAGANDA BATTLE: The Communists keyed their bombardment to a ceaseless propaganda attack, listed 40 specific charges of U.S. aggression in the Formosa Strait, whipped up a homeside hate campaign by accusing Chinese Nationalists of using poison-gas shells. By loudspeakers and leaflet shells the Communists offered the Quemoy garrison attractive surrender terms; by letters routed through Hong Kong, they offered top Nationalists big bribes if they would desert. At the same time they beat on the theme that with the U.S. elections due on Nov. 4, there could be no support in the U.S. for helping Nationalist President Chiang Kaishek...