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- <text id=89TT1411>
- <title>
- May 29, 1989: American Notes:The Senate
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- May 29, 1989 China In Turmoil
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 35
- Finding it Hard to Share
- </hdr><body>
- <p> "The S in FSX stands for sucker," jeered Alan Dixon of
- Illinois. Decrying Japan's conquest of "industry after
- industry," West Virginia's Robert Byrd said, "We have to send
- a message to our own wimpy diplomats that we're not going to
- take it lying down anymore." Despite such rhetoric in last
- week's floor debate, the Senate approved the joint U.S.-Japan
- FSX jet-fighter project, provided the President agrees to an
- accompanying resolution that would clip its wings slightly. The
- Byrd amendment requires that U.S.-based General Dynamics get 40%
- of the estimated $6 billion project, the portion that includes
- confidential American jet-engine technology, while Japan's
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries would get the rest.
- </p>
- <p> Bush thinks such caveats are unnecessary and could still
- scuttle the program. Republicans are calling the Byrd
- resolution a "sour-grape amendment" from those Democrats who
- lost the vote to kill the whole deal. But the Senate vote, 72
- to 27, provided a large enough margin to override a veto.
- Whether the plane ever takes off or not, the Japan-bashing
- rhetoric remains in full flight.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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