Word: showdown
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...Indian subcontinent. Would the Chinese jump in on Pakistan's side? Would the Soviets then move against China? "We were on the verge of a possible showdown. If the Soviet Union threatened China, we would not stand idly by. A country we did not recognize and with which we had had next to no contact for two decades would obtain some significant assistance...
...philosophical debate on how to handle crises. Those who believed in very slow and measured escalation feared a confrontation with the Soviet Union. Nixon, as well as I, believed that this was the most likely way for a crisis to become unmanageable: if we wished to avoid a showdown with the Soviets, we had to create rapidly a calculus of risks they would be unwilling to confront, rather than let them slide into the temptation to match our gradual moves. Rogers wanted to make the ultimate decision depend on whether the Syrians moved south from the occupied town of Irbid...
...power politics. On Aug. 11 Nixon had admitted to the Senior Review Group that in Mrs. Gandhi's position he might pursue a similar course. But he was not in her position-and therefore he was playing for time. He, as did I, wanted to avoid a showdown. A war would threaten our geopolitical design, and we both judged that East Pakistani autonomy was inevitable, if over a slightly longer period than India suggested...
...Part 3: A momentous decision "to risk war in the triangular Soviet-Chinese-American relationship"-on Peking's side. -A near showdown with Moscow over a Soviet-backed invasion of Jordan by Syrian troops and tanks. -Tips on the statesman's craft ("The old adage that men grow in office has not proved true in my experience"). -An unsentimental philosophy of foreign policy: "One reason the Viet Nam debate grew so bitter was that both supporters and critics of the original involvement shared the same traditional sense of universal moral mission...
...dozen years in prison, but also shaping the groundswell movement that brought the exiled Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. Known for his tolerance, Taleghani served as Khomeini's mediator in disputes with the Kurds and other dissident groups. His own differences with the leader nearly forced a showdown in April when Khomeini arrested two of Taleghani's sons. To popular acclaim, Taleghani warned then against a "return to despotism...