But the vote of 117 to 21 marked the largest majority ever to support the measure, despite a major effort by the Soviet Union and Vietnam to divert criticism.

Mr. Woo said he takes charges of misquotation seriously, but that he also understands that such claims are often used to divert criticism that an ill-advised, albeit revealing, quote might bring down on the speaker's head.

The perceived lack of assistance from the federal government upset many citizens and organized labor, and, in order to improve "organized labor's hostile attitude toward his administration," President Hoover used immigrants in the country as a scapegoat to divert criticism (Balderrama 4).

Council Democrats responded with their own news conference, calling the Republican comments racist and an effort to divert criticism from the Mayor.

Other Vatican officials have suggested he served as a lightning rod, diverting criticism from the pope.

The agency tonight distributed a glowing obituary of Mr. Hu, presumably at least in part to divert criticism that the party had mistreated him.

To divert criticism from herself, Woodhull published a denunciation of Beecher in 1872 saying that he practiced free love in private while speaking out against it from the pulpit.

Critics argue that blaming the off-shore industry is simply a convenient way of diverting criticism of the established regulators and an underhand way of raising more taxes.

To divert criticism, he simply rechristened his office the "Bureau of Frontier Defense" and his army the "Frontier Defense Army".

Spokesmen for General Pinochet denied there was anything to investigate and accused the Lagos government of organizing a "political montage" to divert criticism of its difficulties, including a corruption inquiry.