Word: mattered
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...attempted Soviet decapitating attack on American missiles, that danger has always been mired in a paradox. No matter how homicidal or even genocidal the enemy is thought to be, he is not supposed to be suicidal. Deterrence presupposes not only the capacity to retaliate but also sanity and the imperative of self-preservation on both sides. A madman bent on self- destruction is, almost by definition, impossible to deter. It has always required a suspension of disbelief to imagine a sane Soviet leadership, no matter how cold-blooded, calculating that it could, in any meaningful sense, get away with...
...very existence of nuclear weapons exercises a gravitational pull on the superpowers during moments of political and military confrontation, tugging them back from the brink. In a real crisis, precise calculations on one side about exactly how many of what kind of weapons the other side has do not matter all that much; what matters is that both have nuclear weapons, period...
...efforts in Peru and Guatemala, though Peru last week called a halt to joint antidrug action in protest against the Panama invasion. The Washington Post has quoted Joint Chiefs Chairman Powell as telling colleagues that "we have to put a shingle outside our door saying SUPERPOWER LIVES HERE, no matter what the Soviets do, even if they evacuate from Eastern Europe." That may be a better summary of the reasoning behind the Panama invasion than any other...
...Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff boasted that a 24,000- man U.S. force had "decapitated" Manuel Antonio Noriega's army and seized control of strategic facilities along the Panama Canal. Though the crafty dictator was still on the loose, Powell said that it was only a matter of time before U.S. soldiers tracked him down. The only bad news in Powell's rosy report was the uncertain fate of a dozen American hostages, seized by fleeing Panamanian irregulars as they cut and ran from approaching American troops...
...entire party leadership resigned under public pressure. A caretaker regime has set free elections for May 6. No matter how the Communist Party reorganizes or renames itself, it is finished as a significant factor in East German politics. Up to 1 million of its 2.3 million members have already turned in their party cards...