beachhead
noun
definition 1: the initial position or area that invading troops try to secure when landing on an enemy shore.
definition 2: a position that allows for the possibility of further progress.
example: Researchers have established a beachhead in the treatment of certain cancers.
Presidential uses of “beachhead”: from literal to figurative
“Over very difficult terrain and through adverse weather conditions, our Fifth Army and the British Eighth Army—reinforced by units from other United Nations, including a brave and well equipped unit of the Brazilian Army—have, in the past year, pushed north through bloody Cassino and the Anzio beachhead, and through Rome until now they occupy heights overlooking the valley of the Po.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt, “State of the Union Address,” January 6, 1945. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ?pid=16595)
See a map of the Anzio Beachhead.
“Nicaraguan freedom fighters have never asked us to wage their battle, but I will fight any effort to shut off their lifeblood and consign them to death, defeat, or a life without freedom. There must be no Soviet beachhead in Central America.” (Ronald Reagan: “Address Before a Joint Session of Congress on the State of the Union,” January 27, 1987. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ?pid=34430)
“And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved. All this will not be finished in the first 100 days.” (J. F. Kennedy, “Inaugural Address,” 1961. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ ?pid=8032)