"I think for a country to go to Moscow to participate in the Summer Olympic Games ... is abhorrent to the moral principles on which democracy is founded," Jimmy Carter declared last month, as he struggled to organize an Olympic boycott in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It takes a considerable amount of pressure, however, for any nation to persuade its Olympic athletes and officials to pass up the biggest event in sport. The French government, which cherishes a self-proclaimed role as a mediator between Washington and Moscow, declined to put...
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