Regime Change

Jesse Sheidlower jester at PANIX.COM
Fri May 18 07:50:11 UTC 2007


On Thu, May 17, 2007 at 05:54:32PM -0400, Baker, John wrote:
>         The OED has 1990 for the euphemistic use of "regime change."
> (The non-euphemistic use goes back to 1925.)  Here's earlier, from the
> Houston Chronicle (via Westlaw), 2/20/1987:  "In mid-August last year,
> the president signed a National Security Decision Directive (NSDD)
> stating that he still sought a "regime change" in Libya, and directed
> the CIA to conduct a campaign of "disinformation" to make Gadhafi think
> that he was about to be attacked again by the United States or ousted by
> his closest aides."

The OED already has this quote, though from the same day in the
Washington Post. (I assume the HC got it from the post, or it's
a wire story.) I believe it will appear in the next update. I
assume someone on ADS-L pointed this out, but I'm too lazy to check.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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