1987 - Political Events
Political Events
Soviet Party Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev demands reforms January 27 and on June 25 announces plans for a new direction in economic policy. Moscow's vast central-planning system is braking the economy rather than stimulating it, he says. Beginning January 1, 1988, Soviet factories should have the chance to exercise local initiative and assume risks of failure. Moscow Communist Party chief Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, 56, has gained popularity by sacking corrupt officials but is ousted November 10 after complaining of the slow pace of Perestroika (reform); he is given a senior position in construction November 18 after criticism of his dismissal (but see 1989).
Recriminations over the "Iran-Contra" deal (selling weapons to Iran and using the funds to supply contra forces in Nicaragua) embroil U.S. cabinet officers (see 1986). The Tower report submitted January 29 by a Senate investigating committee charges that members of the administration deceived Congress and each other. CIA director William J. Casey resigns January 29 after 6 years in the job and dies of pneumonia and cancer at Glen Cove, N.Y., May 6 at age 74, leaving many touchy political questions unanswered and perhaps unanswerable. He is succeeded May 26 by St. Louis-born lawyer William H. (Hedgcock) Webster, 63, who has served as FBI director and will head the agency until August 1991. Oliver North testifies before a congressional committee in July that his secret operations had approval from higher-ups (Fawn Hall, his secretary, has admitted February 25 that she helped North revise and shred documents that might have implicated him in deals that involved using money from sales of arms to Iran for supplying Contra forces in Nicaragua. "Sometimes you just have to go above the law," she says, and testifies June 9 that she smuggled documents out of the office by concealing them under her clothing), John J. Poindexter testifies that he authorized use of profits from Iran arms sale to support the contras, Secretary of State George P. Shultz testifies that he was repeatedly deceived, Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger testifies to official intrigue and deception, and President Reagan says August 12 that U.S. policy in the affair went astray. The final congressional committee report November 18 after 3 months of hearings charges Reagan with failing to obey the constitutional requirement that the president execute the laws. It documents distribution of nearly $48 million from arms sales to the contras and says the president bears "ultimate responsibility" for the wrongdoing of his aides.
Former U.S. Naval Investigative Service analyst Jonathan J. Pollard receives a sentence of life imprisonment March 4 for having spied for Israel (see 1986). Pollard's wife, Anne, receives a 5-year sentence as an accessory. Former nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu goes on trial for espionage and treason in August, a secret tribunal finds him guilty, and it will sentence him in March of next year to 18 years' imprisonment. He refuses to apologize for revealing information about Israel's nuclear-development program and will be held in solitary confinement at Ashkelon Prison for 11 years despite an international campaign for his release.
West German "flight hobbyist" Mathias Rust, 19, pilots a single-engined Cessna from Helsinki to Moscow May 28, covering 500 miles in broad daylight and circling the Kremlin three times before landing near Red Square. A Soviet official says Rust has turned "a great military power for the moment into a joke."
Some 25,000 demonstrators march in West Berlin June 11 to protest the visit of President Reagan, masked youths known as the "anonymous" throw projectiles at the police and break store windows, but Reagan gives a speech at the Brandenburg Gate June 12 denouncing the Soviet system ("we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health." "Even today the Soviet Union cannot feed itself") while supporting glasnost: "If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate . . . open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
Former Nazi party leader Rudolf Hess commits suicide at Berlin's Spandau Prison August 17 at age 93 (he is found unconscious in a small prison-yard cottage with an electrical cord around his neck).
German politician Uwe Barschel resigns as premier of Schleswig-Holstein September 25—12 days after his Christian Democrat Party has won election. His press aide Reiner Pfeiffer alleged the day before the election that Barschel had ordered a campaign of "dirty tricks" to discredit his Social Democratic Party (SPD) rival Bjorn Engholm, hiring detectives to pry into Engholm's sex life, writing an anonymous letter denouncing him as a tax evader, and writing in a pamphlet that the SPD approved of adults having sex with children as young as 14.
Britain's Conservative Party wins reelection June 11; Prime Minister Thatcher begins a third term.
Italian voters elect porn star Cicciolina (Ilona Staller), 34, to the nation's Parliament.
Party Secretary Gorbachev arrives at Washington December 7 for a 3-day summit conference on arms reduction (see 1986). He and President Reagan sign a treaty at the White House December 8 agreeing to eliminate medium-range intermediate nuclear weapons in both superpower arsenals; the first treaty to reduce the size of nuclear arsenals, it goes far beyond the "nuclear freeze" proposed by many in 1982 by agreeing to dismantle all Soviet and U.S. medium-and shorter-range missiles, with extensive weapons inspection on both sides. Western experts have inspected a heretofore top-secret radar site at Krasnoyarsk September 5 to see if it violated the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty as Reagan officials had said.
Czech Communist Party leader Gustav Husák resigns December 17 after 20 years in power. He is succeeded by economic specialist Milos Jakes, 65, who is urged by Soviet leader Gorbachev to promote Soviet-style perestroika (restructuring) and "democratization" (see 1989).
Syrian troops occupy West Beirut February 22, ending 3 years of anarchy during which terrorists, mainly pro-Iranian Shiites, have kidnapped dozens of foreigners, but Lebanon's prime minister Rashid Karami, 55, is assassinated June 1. Palestinians led by Sheik Ahmed Yassin, 50, organize the militant Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas (Harakat-al-Muqawima al-Islamiyya) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with a mission to destroy Israel and create an Islamic state in Palestine. Hamas is also Arabic for zeal; members of the movement have worked since the late 1970s with the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood to create a network of charities, clinics, and schools in Gaza; and they have been active at universities. Religious factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization support Hamas (but the PLO will later break with it), and Hamas leaders begin to call for a jihad (holy war) against Israel. An Israeli army truck accidentally hits some Arab vans in the occupied Gaza Strip December 8, killing four people; rumors spread that the accident was a deliberate retaliation for the murder of an Israeli salesman. Militant young Palestinians begin throwing rocks at Israeli troops December 9, the troops shoot some protesters dead, and the violent intifada (Arabic for uprising) spreads throughout the occupied territories. Civil disobedience will cost more than 300 Arab lives in the next 12 months in a struggle to oust Israeli occupation forces and establish a separate Palestinian state (see 1988).
Kuwait asks for U.S. naval protection of her tankers against Iranian attacks in the Persian Gulf as the Iraq-Iran war continues. President Reagan complies, knowing that refusal would result in Kuwait asking Moscow, and a spasmodic "tanker war" begins in the Gulf. A Soviet vessel comes under attack for the first time May 8, Iraqi missiles hit the frigate U.S.S. Stark May 17 with a loss of 37 men, and Iraq's president Saddam Hussein apologizes.
Turkey holds a referendum September 6 that returns former prime minister Süleyman Demirel to power (see 1980). He launched a national campaign last year to initiate the referendum, wins election September 24 to the chairmanship of the True Path Party, and is reelected Isparta deputy in the general elections November 29 (see 1991).
China's Communist Party expels dissidents January 14.
South Korea's military dictator Chun Doo Hwan appoints Roh Toe Woo, 55, as his successor in June, students stage violent protests, Roh—and, later, Chun—agree to direct elections, opposition leader Kim Dae-jung is cleared of all outstanding charges, has his civil and political rights fully restored, and announces October 30 that he is forming a new political party, he and opposition leader Kim Young Sam are allowed to participate in the balloting, but the two Kims split the opposition vote, and Roh wins election December 16 with 36.6 percent of the popular vote in the first direct presidential election since Park Chung Hee came to power (see 1992).
India and Sri Lanka sign a treaty July 29 designed to end the Tamil Rebellion that has escalated since 1983; India sends troops into the island, they clash with Tamil forces in the north, and extreme Sinhalese nationalists commit acts of violence in the south. A bomb explosion at Colombo November 9 leaves 32 dead, more than 75 injured, and a top official of the ruling United Nationalist Party is assassinated in December (see 1988).
Tibetan demonstrators stone police to protest Chinese rule; the October 1 riots leave six dead, scores seriously injured. Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of stirring up anti-Chinese feeling by "criminal" actions. The White House expresses support for Beijing October 6, but the U.S. Senate votes 98 to 0 to condemn the Chinese crackdown.
The Meech Lake Accord signed by Canada's provincial prime ministers outside Ottawa in April recognizes Quebec as a "distinct society" and makes special concessions to that province, but the accord requires ratification by all ten provincial legislatures by June 23, 1990 (see 1990). Quebec separatist René Levesque dies of a heart attack at Montreal November 1 at age 65.
The Dutch ambassador to Surinam leaves the country January 20 after being accused of interfering in Surinamese affairs, the foreign minister Hendrik Herrensberg offers his resignation February 10, and head of state Lt. Col. Desi Bouterse announces February 12 that his puppet premier Pretaapnarain Radhakishun no longer enjoys the support of the ruling military Supreme Council and has been asked to resign (see 1986). Three opposition leaders in the Supreme Council form a Front for Democracy and Development August 2. Bouterse signs an agreement with them 10 days later pledging to respect the results of an election if they maintain good relations with the army, Surinam's voters give overwhelming approval to a new constitution in a referendum held September 30, and the coalition leaders win a landslide victory at the polls November 25, with only 9 percent supporting Bouterse's newly formed National Democratic Party (see 1988).
Five Central American nations sign an accord August 7 at Guatemala City agreeing to cooperate with Costa Rica's president Oscar Arias Sánchez, 45, in finding ways to resolve conflicts in the region. Costa Rica has not had an army since 1948, Arias is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize October 13, but hostilities continue between Nicaragua's Sandanista government and U.S.-supported contras.
Zimbabwe's parliament suspends former prime minister Ian Smith for 1 year April 2 to punish him for a speech he made to white businessmen at Johannesburg in February urging them to fight the "blackmail" of international economic sanctions against South Africa; the Zimbabwean House of Assembly votes 78 to 0 August 21 to abolish the 20 seats reserved for whites since the country gained independence in 1980; antigovernment rebels in southeast Zimbabwe hack 16 members of a white Christian missionary group to death with axes on the night of November 26 (most of the victims are women and children); opposition leader Joshua Nkomo condemns the massacre, and he signs an agreement with Prime Minister Robert Mugabe at Harare December 31, ending a 5-year guerrilla war in Matabeleland. Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union and Mugabe's African National Union (Patriotic Front) join to create the ZANU (PF); Mugabe is sworn in as the nation's first executive president and the position of prime minister is abolished.
Zulu prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, 58, launches a bloody civil war against South Africa's African National Congress (ANC). Less militant against apartheid than the still-imprisoned Nelson Mandela, Buthelezi has opposed economic sanctions against Pretoria, favors capitalism, and has enlisted 1.7 million members, mostly Zulu, in Inkatha, which he founded in 1975 (see 1988).
Uganda's Holy Spirit Movement mounts an army of 6,000 men armed with sticks, stones, and voodoo toys who try to storm Kampala under the leadership of Acholi tribal priestess Alice Lakwena, 27, who dabs her followers with "magic" ointment and promises them that their stones will explode like grenades (see 1986). Government forces use machine guns and artillery to mow down thousands, inflicting the heaviest loss of life involving magic belief since the Maji-Maji insurrection of 1905. Kenyan border police arrest Lakwena in December as she tries to cross into their country (see Kony, 1989).
Burkina Faso's president Thomas Sankara is gunned down in his office at Ougadougou October 15 at age 37 (see 1984). Favoring agricultural workers and women over the urban civil service, he has organized mass campaigns to vaccinate peasants, teach them to read, and help them manage scarce water supplies. Sankara's best friend Col. Blaise Compaoré, 37, has killed him in a coup d'etat supported by Libya and will govern with far less progressive policies.
Tunisia's newly appointed prime minister Gen. Zine el Abidine Ben Ali declares President Bourguiba, now 84, too senile to continue his 30-year rule (a team of physicians has found him unfit), ousts him November 7, places him under guard in a villa outside Tunis, and takes over in a bloodless (but constitutionally legal) coup, promising democratic reforms. Bourguiba's enlightened policies (plus oil revenues) have brought Tunisia from the Middle Ages into the 20th century, but favoritism has combined with a rise in Islamic fundamentalism to bring the country to the brink of civil war.
Niger's dictator Seyni Kountche dies of a brain tumor at Paris November 10 at age 56 after a 13-year rule; he is succeeded by his chief of staff (and cousin), Col. Ali Saibou, 47, who promises democratic reforms (see 1989).
Newspaper reporters observe model Donna Rice, 27, going into the Washington, D.C., town house of 50-year-old Kansas-born Sen. Gary Hart (originally Hartpence) (D. Colo.) one night and not coming out until the next morning. A married man, presidential hopeful Hart has been photographed with Rice on a trip to Bimini aboard his friend's yacht Monkey Business; he bows out of the presidential race May 8, and although he reenters December 16 with support from his wife, Lee, the Donna Rice affair has blighted his chances.
Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor (ret.) dies of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) at Washington, D.C., April 19 at age 85; former presidential adviser Arthur H. Dean of pneumonia at his Glen Cove, N.Y., estate November 30 at age 89.
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
