Word: gunboat
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...About 36 hours before the assault on the Stark, a Soviet tanker, accompanied by a U.S.S.R. navy frigate, struck a mine some 35 miles from the Kuwaiti coast. There were no casualties, but the tanker was effectively crippled. On May 6, an Iranian gunboat opened fire on a 6,459- ton Soviet freighter; it marked the first time that Iran had struck a vessel traveling under the flag of a superpower. The Iranian government reportedly assured the Soviets that the assault was unauthorized and had been waged by a rogue band of Revolutionary Guards. The Soviets accepted the explanation...
...Europe have considerably increased in volume. The U.S.-E.C. balance, in terms of agriculture, is very positive for the U.S., which means it is not true that Europe is protectionist. The Americans always want more -- not a very fair position. When there is conflict, you must not use gunboat diplomacy. The problem is not Franco- American. It is a European Community-U.S. issue...
...exercise in gunboat diplomacy in the Mediterranean, awesome though it may have been, did not help the plight of the hostages in Lebanon. In an atmosphere of rising tension, the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad organization, whose hostages are believed to include Terry Anderson, the chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, and Thomas Sutherland, a dean at the American University of Beirut, defiantly warned that its captives would be killed if the U.S. attacked. Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of Hizballah, the pro-Iranian Party of God movement, personally challenged the Sixth Fleet. "What can they...
...doubts surrounded the Harpoon missiles launched by the Navy cruiser Yorktown in a night action. At first the Navy claimed that a Libyan patrol boat 38 miles away had been hit. But officials later backed off, admitting that the cruiser may have been shooting at a "mirage." If the gunboat was for real, ask critics, did the Harpoons (cost: $944,000 each) miss? And if the Yorktown was shooting at a mirage, what does that say about the $1 billion cruiser's complex, highly sensitive Aegis radar defense system...
...powers have long used gunboat diplomacy to intimidate troublesome local rulers. Only now the gunboats have grown considerably larger. A U.S. aircraft carrier displaces up to 90,000 tons and carries enough conventional firepower to level all the airfields in, say, Libya. Normally, the U.S. Sixth Fleet has at most two carriers in the Mediterranean, but soon there will be three. This week, the America leaves Norfolk, Va., to join the Saratoga and the Coral...