University of Miami - The Ibis Yearbook

“Page 8 •National Jferoa Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Brezhnev dies Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, the man who led the Soviet Union to great military expansion and economic decline over a period of 18 years, died at the age of 75. In a surprisingly sudden turn of events, the Soviet Politburo turned the nation ' s reigns over to Yuri Vladimirovich Andro- pov, a former spymaster in the KGB, the Russian Secret Police. Brezhnev drove the Soviet Union as hard as he could to match the United States in mili- tary supremacy. He was also known the world over for his harsh handling of dissidents, as exemplified by his heavy hand in Iron Curtain nations such as Po- land and Czechoslavakia. The Soviet people were not in- formed of Brezhnev ' s passing until 26V2 hours later. One day later, the Politburo met and an- nounced in an uncharacteristi- cally rapid action that 68-year- old Yuri Andropov would be Brezhnev ' s successor. Political analysts listed five main tasks that Andropov would have to satisfy as the new Soviet leader: 1) Satisfy the Russian Generals, 2) Measure the risks abroad involving the plans of the NATO allies, 3) Keeping East- ern Europe in line with Soviet policies, 4) Reforming a strug- gling economy, 5) Coping with Russian dissenters in a fashion that may differ from his han- dling of them as head of the KGB. Jury calls Hinckley insane John W. Hinckley Jr., the man accused of shooting President Ronald Reagan and three oth- ers, was found not guilty by rea- son of insanity on June 21. Hinckley had been brought up on 13 charges, ranging from at- tempted assassination of the president to possession of an un- licensed weapon. Hinckley was the first person to escape conviction of attempt- ed assassination on a president since 1835. As a result of being found not guilty, Hinckley was confined to St. Elizabeth ' s hospital in Wash- ington, D.C., where he would re- main until the courts rule that he would not be a threat to him- self or to society. War rages in Falklands Alexander Haig was in Lon- don by the end of the week to try and work out a peaceful solution with the British government. Britain warned that time was running out and that only Haig could persuade the Argentines to pull out of the Falklands. After meeting with Haig on April 10, Argentinian President Leopoldo Galtieri announced that his country would fight if provoked by the British. The first sign of British resur- gence occurred on April 25 when the port of Grytviken was cap- tured. The next day, the entire island of South Georgia had been recaptured. On April 2, the ruling junta in Argentina announced that its armed forces had taken hold in the British-controlled Falkland Islands, located approximately 250 miles from Argentina ' s southeastern tip. In response to the Argentinian aggression, British Prime Minis- ter Margaret Thatcher the next day ordered several large naval units to head for the Falklands at once. She also announced that about $1.5 billion in Argentinian assets in Britain would be imme- diately frozen. On May 2, Argentina ' s only cruiser, the General Belgrano, was hit by a British torpedo. The next day, it was announced by the Argentine government that 500 of their seamen had been killed in the attack. Two days after the attack on the General Belgrano, an Argen- tine jet fighter crippled the Brit- ish destroyer Sheffield, which had to be abandoned. On June 14, Thatcher made the announcement that the Ar- gentine forces on the island of Stanley had surrendered. Three days later, Galtieri resigned as president, commander of the army, and member of the junta. New President Maj. Gen. Reynaldo Bignone, was sworn in on July 1 and pledged that one day, the Argentines would be free from British rule. His first task, however, was to negotiate the release of some 600 prisoners being held by the British. A couple of months later, Ar- gentina and Britain worked out a cease-fire, and mourned the losses of thousands of troops killed in battle. Pope meets Arafat; Begin is critical In what one of his aides called " ... the most important meet- ing of his life, " PLO leader Yasir Arafat met with Pope John Paul II for twenty minutes. It was a meeting that delighted the PLO ' s leaders and outraged the Israelis. Commenting on the meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Mena- chem Begin said: " It shall now be recorded in the national memory of the Jewish people that the spiritual leader of mil- lions of believers the world over did not recoil from meeting the head of the organization that had written into its constitution as a central aim the annihilation of the Jewish people. " A Palestinian Roman Catholic priest named Ibrahim Ayad said of the meeting: " Now that the head of the Palestinians has been received by the Pope, Catholics throughout the world will cease to look on the PLO as a terrorist organization. " Many Jewish sympathizers were outraged to see pictures of the Pope and Arafat on the front pages of many daily newspapers and the weekly news magazines. Scattered protests against the media soon followed. face a Mesicr ”