iron trianglen.
/ˌʌɪən ˈtrʌɪaŋɡl/, /ˌʌɪən ˈtrʌɪəŋɡl/, U.S. /ˌaɪ(ə)rn ˈtraɪˌæŋɡ(ə)l/ 1. Military. Any of various roughly triangular geographical zones regarded as heavily defended or densely populated by enemy forces.
ΚΠ
1943 On Target 21 The ‘Iron Triangle’ of Poland, the Dutch ‘water defences’, the Maginot Line, the terrific fortress of Singapore, the island of Corregidor—all the world has heard of those places.
1951 Times 9 June 6/1 He may have discussed the strategy to be employed against the Communist ‘iron triangle’, an area just north of the 38th parallel in which the enemy appears to be concentrating men and supplies.
1965 Los Angeles Times 10 Oct. g4/6 American paratroopers and Australian infantrymen swept into the Viet Cong's ‘Iron Triangle’ stronghold area northwest of Saigon after a B-52 saturation bombing raid.
1986 Guardian 24 Sept. 7/6 The attacks on the French battalion, exposed in what the Israelis used to call the ‘iron triangle’ in the low hills east of Tyre, have taken their toll.
2007 D. Johnson Tree of Smoke 215 We are not in the Iron Triangle, we are southwest of there in a friendly zone.
2. A close alliance or relationship between three powerful groups, people, countries, etc.; esp. (U.S. Politics) the interdependent relationship in a particular area of policy-making between a legislative committee, a bureaucratic agency, and an interest group.
ΚΠ
1945 Winnipeg Free Press 30 May 3/3 Basic adult education aims, including national unity.., and the exploration of Canada's part in the ‘iron triangle’ of Britain, American [sic] and the U.S.S.R., were endorsed by the heads of four contributing organizations.
1978 Evening Capital (Annapolis, Maryland) 27 May 2 Carter said in the prepared speech that an ‘iron triangle’ of bureaucracy, congressional committees and lobbies can mobilize opposition to needed reform.
1985 Polit. Theory 13 19 These first-wave thinkers considered the bureaucratic state, capitalism, and the patriarchal family to be three sides of an iron triangle of women's oppression.
1999 Washington Post (Nexis) 23 July c1 Known as the Iron Triangle, the three—Karl Rove, Joe Allbaugh and Karen Hughes—have formed Bush's political inner circle since he first ran for governor.
2010 R. K. Armey & M. Kibbe Give us Liberty 4 The iron triangle of entrenched politicians, bureaucrats, and the motivated network of special interests was temporarily slowed.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1943