Word: straitly
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Ironically, the Pope had avoided coming to Argentina earlier, precisely because of a political dispute: the conflicting claims of Argentina and Chile to the Beagle Channel islands and the adjoining strait in the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. That argument had threatened to erupt into war between the two countries until the claimants agreed to accept papal mediation. According to unofficial reports, the suggested terms of settlement award three islands to Chile and put the surrounding waters under shared sovereignty. Chile has declared itself ready to accept the solution. Argentina has not. Until the Falklands crisis forced a visit...
...that although Argentina was many thousands of miles from where so much of the international action lay, we all lived on the same planet and had to see it whole. The Beagle Channel at the southern tip of Argentina, for example, was to them of compelling interest. Yet the Strait of Hormuz and the waterways through the Indonesian archipelago, industrial Japan's lifeline, were perhaps more important. I did not, I said, soon expect to see an Argentine squadron in the Indian Ocean, though it would be welcome. The faces of the admirals were wreathed in smiles...
Egypt's desire for peace under Gamel Abdol Nasser was a slow process, however, Nasser encouraged the PLO forerunner, the Fedayoun to infiltrate Israeli settlements in the Negev desert through the Gaza Strip. In addition, Egypt kept the Strait of Tiran closed to Israel shipping (the rough equivalent of Iran threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz to the United States--which Jimmy Carter thought so vital that he was willing to invoke the specter of limited nuclear war in such an event). The second Israeli attack, coordinated with the British and French assaults on Egypt's Port Said, resulted...
Nasser continued to harbor his ambitions for a pan-Arab state with Egyptian hegemony. In May 1967-against the wishes of the Soviets-he mobilized the cream of his army in the Sinai and shut off the Strait of Tiran, two moves designed to provoke Israel. Israel demurred for three weeks before launching the pre-emptive strike which marked the beginning of the Six Day War. For the third time, Israel prevailed in the Sinai. Since its first two withdrawals had opened an avenue for Nasser to threaten Israeli security. Israel decided to hold onto the Sinai as a bargaining...
Such are the Falkland Islands, the rainswept archipelago about 300 miles east of the Strait of Magellan, which is perhaps the most bizarre scene for an armed conflict since the Orcs attacked J.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. The two main islands, East Falkland (2,550 sq. mi.) and West Falkland (1,750 sq. mi.), surrounded by a shoal of 200 islets, cover an area about the size of Connecticut.* The prevailing west winds are so fierce that the Falklands have no trees, and, rumors of offshore oil notwithstanding, there are virtually no natural resources except grass. There are also...