Chapter 661: Chapter 51: Dark Nation·Dark Team
Time marched on, and 1989 gradually drew to a close, with the 1980s winding down.
At the December 1989 coastal meeting in Malta, President of the United States George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Gorbachev announced a declaration indicating that the Cold War between their two nations might soon come to an end.
The world seemed to see a glimmer of hope for peace.
However, at the end of December, the US Army launched a military operation called "Operation Just Cause," deploying troops to Panama aimed at overthrowing dictator Manuel Noriega.
27,000 members of the United States Navy easily defeated the Panama Defense Forces in less than ten days, at the cost of 25 lives, captured Noriega, and transported him to America for trial under U.S. law.
Interestingly, Noriega’s rise from a poor boy born into a poverty-stricken family to the dictator of a nation could not have occurred without the support of the Americans behind the scenes.
He joined the CIA at twenty to steal intelligence for the Americans, aiding them in controlling the Panama Canal.
He was sent to a military academy in Peru and later, accused of rape for not paying a prostitute, it was the U.S. Embassy that intervened and got him out.
After joining the Panama National Guard, he followed in a successful coup d’état and stepped onto the central stage of Panamanian politics.
Later, with the help of the CIA, he expanded his influence step by step using various means and massively seized profit, including drug trafficking.
At that time, Central and South America became America’s largest drug supply bases, and Pablo Escobar in Colombia constructed a huge drug empire relying on the drug business.
US anti-drug personnel tried their best to destroy one drug transit point after another, but Pablo turned to Noriega for cooperation, making Panama a stable drug distribution base.
At that time, the CIA director was George H.W. Bush himself, who, for the sake of this informant Noriega and the intelligence lines in America’s backyard regions, and to counter Cuba and the Soviet Union, personally assisted Noriega in covering up evidence of drug trafficking, letting the drug trade in Central and South America overflow.
Thus, in the ’70s and ’80s, a bizarre scenario unfolded: FBI agents and U.S. drug enforcement officers desperately fought against ruthless drug traffickers at the forefront of the drug war, while the CIA kept sabotaging them from behind, covering up evidence and nurturing drug traffickers.
The result was that the drug prohibition issue in America got severely worse in the ’80s, with drugs seeping into every aspect of society; the NBA was a direct victim.
In 1981, after Torrijos met with an accident and died unexpectedly in a plane crash, Noriega, with years of accumulation and purge became the commander of the Panama Defense Forces, the actual ruler of the nation.
At this time, Noriega transformed from being a CIA agent betraying national intelligence into a patriot wanting to regain control of the Panama Canal.
The American dog they had raised began to bite its owner.
During Reagan’s eight years in office, despite his support for pro-American presidents to counterbalance Noriega, Noriega managed to depose them through various means.
By the time George H.W. Bush was elected in 1988, this former CIA major boss’s time had come, and Noriega’s good days came to an end.
With the easing of US-Soviet relations and the Soviet withdrawal from America’s backyard, America no longer needed such a massive intelligence line in Central America, marking the countdown to Noriega’s dictatorship.
The defense forces collapsed, and Noriega fled to the Vatican embassy in Panama for asylum.
Since US Army personnel could not enter the embassy to arrest Noriega, they surrounded the embassy tightly, opened fire on any vehicles approaching it, and played Van Halen’s heavy metal rock music through loudspeakers towards the embassy.
On January 3, 1990, the third day of the ’90s, Noriega announced his surrender.
This former CIA agent was then escorted onto a U.S. Air Force plane by DEA agents and taken to Miami for trial.
As the global influence of the Soviet Union receded entirely, Americans started wielding their big stick, revealing their Mafia-like evil side.
Also on January 3, at 7 p.m., the Portland Trail Blazers came to Los Angeles to challenge the Lakers.
This was their first game of the 1990s, their first match of the season against the Lakers, and also the first time West returned to Los Angeles after "defecting" from Portland.
Since the Trail Blazers and Lakers both belong to the Pacific Division, they always encounter each other early in the regular season; typically there is a battle in November, possibly even two.
However, this year’s schedule was strange; the Trail Blazers had not been lined up against the Los Angeles Lakers for the whole of 1989, until this battle in January 1990.
Since 1985, the two teams had monopolized the Western Conference championships, with the Lakers securing two Western championships and one overall championship, while the Trail Blazers won three Western championships and three overall championships.
These two truly dominated the West, and in terms of the current situation, it was highly likely to remain their domain.
Neither the Suns nor the Supersonics were close to challenging the domination of these two giants of the West.
Unless some unexpected incident occurred, it was difficult for other Western Conference teams to challenge their rule.
And as it currently appeared, the dominance of these two teams over the West was going to continue for a very long time.
There’s no need to mention the Trail Blazers; Ah Gan was only 26 years old, and all the main players were under 30.
In the ’80s and ’90s, medical science was not particularly advanced; players generally maintained their peak performance until around 32 years old.
The Trail Blazers had at least six more years of core competitiveness, and Ah Gan, up to now, without any significant injuries, was strong like a Bionic Man.
