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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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052989
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05298900.034
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1990-09-22
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NATION, Page 35Finding it Hard to Share
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.
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.