Spool forward to 1981 and Mr Gaddis provides a fascinating sketch of the Soviet leadership once again agonising over whether to crush the sprigs of political liberalism in eastern Europe.
Who among you, coming upon a boll weevil would know what to do; whether to crush it or take it into Blue Eagle restaurant and feed it a sandwich.
If the monks' demonstrations continue, analysts said, the military junta will face a difficult decision over whether to crush them by force and risk a still greater public backlash.
Members of Crush or Flush use their cell phones to cycle through photos of other members and indicate whether to "crush" or "flush" them.
That vast distribution 120 million monthly visitors and 100 million registered users is an asset Yahoo! has used time and again to crush its competition, whether it's in news, financial data or Internet gaming.
The justices did conclude by saying we "do not decide whether a statute limited to crush videos or other depictions of extreme animal cruelty would be constitutional.
Whether the question is how to crush Isis militarily in Syria and Iraq and quash its attempts to spread the conflict to Europe, or how to better assist, develop, educate and befriend the Muslim world, a more concerted, more effective international approach is urgently required.
After the war, the MGB helped to crush all opposition, whether real or suspected, in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union; between 1945 and 1953 more than 750,000 Soviet citizens were arrested and punished for political crimes.
The cast stood in the back as Johnson was asked about his favorite sports beyond basketball (football, boxing, and, as of this month, "Now, I love baseball"), playing basketball against his daughter ("We play to ten, and I let her get to nine. Once she gets to nine, I have to crush her"), and whether he would sign an autograph (No).
State Department officials are divided over whether Mr. Sharon truly believes this, or whether, as one official put it, "he wants to crush the Palestinians".
But Turkey has long vowed to crush any Kurdish state -- whether in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, or Syria -- because Turkish nationalists say it threatens the unity of Turkey.
