Regime Change

[Dave Wilton]

Precisely, a point in coining terms such as this is their ambiguity. They
can mean different things to different people and garner wider support than
would be the case if one were used terms of less ambiguous meaning.

Senator A can vote for "regime change" in the hopes that the dictator will
retire to the south of France. Senator B can have CIA covert action in mind.
And Senator C can be thinking all out invasion. If you wrote a resolution
calling for any one of these three options, it would fail for being either
too soft or too bellicose. But with the deliberate ambiguity of "regime
change," all can support it.


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 6:25 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Regime Change

Am not sure that a line between "literal" and "euphemistic" _regime change_
can be established empirically.

  Even if Official X says, "We are for regime change" while thinking, "Off
the @3$5^&*!" one assumes that a fortuitous change resulting from some
legitimate cause would be equally acceptable.

  JL

Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Jesse Sheidlower
Subject: Re: Regime Change
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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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