Word: pointing
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...Geeks' thesis is an odd combination of old-fashioned conservative thinking--just change attitudes and everything else will follow--and nouveau Nerd militancy. They challenge the orthodox liberal view of education; instead of radical legislative action, the Nerds want a cultural catharsis. But their solution misses the point on several issues...
White House aides point out that Bush's policies, notably the cozying up to China, are not always pro-democracy. The Philippines and Panama were special cases in which the U.S. had historic ties with the countries involved, major assets to protect -- the Panama Canal and sea and air bases in the Philippines -- and strong military forces on the scene and ready for action. Says a senior Administration official: "It's always nice, of course, when you can intervene on behalf of democrats, but that's not always possible...
...fear changes sides, when individuals coalesce into crowds and defy him. Emboldened by the discovery that they are not alone, they take to the streets and squares to protest, and they learn -- though sometimes at great cost -- that no tyrant can kill or arrest an entire nation. At that point, despots lose the special combination of visible authority and legitimacy that the Chinese call "the mandate of heaven." In 1989 it happened all over Eastern Europe, where the accelerating pace of reforms gave birth to the observation that Poland took ten years, Hungary ten months, East Germany ten weeks, Czechoslovakia...
...dread. Progovernment forces staged a fierce comeback in Bucharest and other cities, plunging the country into civil war. In the heart of the capital, troops of the well-equipped 180,000-member security forces, the Securitate, battled army units for control of the fire- gutted presidential palace. At one point, members of the security forces reportedly burst into a meeting of demonstrators at the Opera House and sprayed the room with submachine guns. The violence assumed its own macabre rhythms. Whenever the fighting lessened, citizens would flood into the streets to celebrate Ceausescu's downfall; when the fighting began again...
...Czechoslovakia -- rose up in wrath. Without the backing of the Soviet army, local satraps dared not use their security forces and probably did not know if they could trust them. The communist parties tried to buy off the people with leadership shuffles and semireforms, but that was not the point. Communist dictatorship could not be reformed; it could only be destroyed...