1985 - Political Events
Political Events
Mikhail Sergevich Gorbachev, 54, becomes general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party after Konstantin Chernenko dies of emphysema March 11 at age 73 after just 13 months in office. Moscow and Washington have reached a compromise agreement January 8 to resume negotiations toward limiting and reducing nuclear weapons and preventing an arms race in space. Secretary Gorbachev is the youngest head of state since Stalin took power at age 45 in 1924; an agricultural specialist with no experience in foreign affairs, he meets with President Reagan at Geneva November 21, and the two agree to speed up arms-control talks and renew cultural relations.
Albania's dictator Enver Hoxha dies of heart failure at Tiranë April 11 at age 78 after 41 years in power. He is succeeded as Communist Party chief by Ramiz Alia, 59, who has been president since 1982, but Hoxha's widow continues to exercise considerable power.
Terrorist attacks by Arab, French guerrilla, Islamic, and Palestinian groups kill 107, wound more than 428 in Europe and the Mediterranean. Bombs explode in Madrid, Paris, Athens, Frankfurt, a U.S. air base near Frankfurt, and Rome; grenades are thrown in Rome; a TWA jetliner, hijacked June 14 between Athens and Rome, is diverted to Beirut, where passengers are held hostage for 17 days; hijackers seize the cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean October 7, killing partially paralyzed New York tourist Leon Klinghoffer, 69; an Egyptair jetliner, hijacked November 23 between Athens and Cairo, is forced to land in Malta, two passengers are killed, 58 people are killed when Egyptian commandos storm the plane; gunmen attack Rome and Vienna airports December 27 and 20 people are killed, including four terrorists. Libya aided the attackers, says President Reagan.
Iraqi jets armed with French Exocet missiles bomb Iran's strategic Kharg Island oil terminal August 17 in the ongoing Persian Gulf war (see 1984; 1986).
Senior West German counterintelligence officer Hans Joachim Tiedge, 48, defects to the East at Rome, August 19, prompting a major overhaul of West Germany's counterintelligence operations. A Pentagon commission issues recommendations for tightening security November 21 following revelations of several spy cases. Authorities that day arrest Naval Investigative Service analyst Jonathan (Jay) Pollard, 31, outside the Israeli Embassy on charges of stealing government property and selling classified code information to a foreign government. Pollard's wife, Anne L. Henderson-Pollard, 25, is arrested November 22 and charged with "unauthorized possession" of classified defense documents. Pollard admits to having sold information to Israel and confesses also to having provided Pakistan with military secrets (see 1987). Retired CIA analyst Larry Wu-Tai Chin, 63, is arrested November 23 on charges of having provided China with classified documents, and former National Security Agency communications specialist Ronald W. Pelton, 44, is arrested November 25 on espionage charges, having been identified as a spy by Soviet defector Vitaly Yurchenko who later redefected.
France's government totters in a scandal over the sinking of a French antinuclear ship off New Zealand September 22. New Zealand has refused entry to a U.S. warship February 4 after Washington refused to say whether the ship carried nuclear arms.
Italy's government falls October 16 after a political crisis triggered by the Achille Lauro hijacking.
Vietnamese forces in Cambodia drive the Khmer Rouge from the last of their bases in mid-February (see 1979). Washington has found Pol Pot distasteful but see him as useful in fighting communism and provided covert support through China.
Former Cambodian prime minister Lon Nol dies at Fullerton, Calif., November 17 at age 72; former Filipino general Carlos P. Romulo at Manila December 15 at age 86.
Uruguay returns to civilian rule March 1 after 12 years of military dictatorship that has taken thousands of political prisoners in an attempt to demoralize the people. President Julio Maria Sanguinetti, 49, heads the new government after unemployment has risen to 30 percent, the inflation rate to 66 percent, and foreign debts to $5 billion.
Brazil returns to civilian rule March 15 after 21 years of military dictatorship. Opposition candidate Tancredo Neves has won overwhelmingly in the January election but dies of complications following intestinal surgery before he can take office. His running mate José Sarney, 54, former governor of Maranhão State, becomes president.
Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega Saavedra offers peace initiatives in February (see 1984), but President Reagan says March 1 that the Nicaragua contras are "the moral equal of our Founding Fathers" (see 1984). Ortega won election last year by promising political pluralism, anti-imperialism, a mixed economy, and nonalignment in foreign policy; he compares Reagan to Hitler, U.S. critics say Reagan is obsessed with Nicaragua, and Congress votes July 18 to prevent Reagan from supplying the contras with anything but "non-lethal" aid (but see 1986).
Peru has her first constitutional transfer of power since 1945 (see 1980). President Belaunde Terry has been unable to control the military in its efforts to resist terrorist attacks by Maoist guerrillas of the Sendero Luminosa (Shining Path), his austerity measures have made him widely unpopular, and although he runs for reelection he goes down to overwhelming defeat in May after a 5-year term. Social Democrat Alan Garcia Pérez, 36, is elected to succeed him and takes office July 28. Much of the country remains under military control as the Shining Path frustrates efforts to suppress it. The Upper Huallaga Valley has become a coca-growing area since the late 1970s, Sendero operatives defend the centuries-old native tradition of chewing coca leaves, and by controlling the valley and imposing a tax on Colombian drug lords' imports of coca paste for use in cocaine they extort as much as $30 million per year that they use in part to bribe businessmen, politicians, even judges, who systematically pay protection money to avoid being kidnapped for ransom (see Fujimori, 1990).
Guyana's president Forbes Burnham dies while undergoing throat surgery at Washington, D.C., August 6 at age 62 after 21 years in power (see 1964). He is succeeded by his prime minister Desmond Hoyte, 56, but the country teeters on the brink of bankruptcy (see 1992).
Uganda's president Milton Obote flees into exile July 27 following a military coup. Gen. Tito Okello is installed as president but will serve only 7 months (see 1986).
Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari is overthrown August 27 in a bloodless coup. Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida proclaims himself president (see 1983). Buhari will be imprisoned for 40 months.
Sudan has a military coup April 6 while President Nimeiri is in Egypt (see 1983). Now 55, he has survived three previous coup attempts in his 16-year rule, but his country is ravaged by civil war, tribal conflicts, and famine. His defense minister Gen. Abdel Rahman Siwar el-Dahab seizes power (see 1989).
Tanzania's president Julius Nyerere resigns in November after 21 years in power. His vice president Ali Hassan Myinyi succeeds him.
Emily's List is founded by IBM heiress and longtime political activist Emily Ellen Malcolm, 38, who sets out to raise money from men as well as women donors (she herself has anonymously been donating $500,000 per year to various causes). Her political action committee's purpose is to support worthy U.S. female Democratic Party candidates.
John Birch Society founder Robert Welch dies at Winchester, Mass., January 6 at age 85 (he retired as president of the right-wing group in 1983); diplomat Henry Cabot Lodge II dies at Beverly, Mass., February 26 at age 82; former diplomat and Cabinet officer Patricia Roberts Harris of cancer at Washington, D.C., March 21 at age 60; former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart after a stroke at Hanover, N.H., December 7 at age 70.
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