Word: boatmen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...canals; the villages on its banks were among Viet Nam's most prosperous. But while most of the war was confined to the Central Highlands and the borders of the DMZ, the Viet Cong methodically conquered all but one of the many fortified outposts that guarded the canal. Boatmen quit using the passage because they knew that the V.C. would either confiscate their cargoes or extort huge safe-passage fees. Towns along the water became dilapidated and poor as rice growers diverted their shipments to the Bassac River, a route that added 21 days to the trip to Saigon...
...resulting scramble was like Dunkirk in miniature. Despite ten-foot waves in the Straits, Castro officials were climbing all over the boatmen, prodding them on their way. "I told them my boat just couldn't make it," reported one exile, "but they said, 'You have the green light-go.' " Out on the open sea, the exile's cabin cruiser began taking water; a U.S. Coast Guard cutter hovering near by had to rescue everyone aboard. In all, the Coast Guard picked up more than 100 Cubans from a dozen boats swamped by the rough seas...
...above race and nation, but Moscow and Peking are divided by racial hostility and memories of conflict, which would persist even if ideological differences could be ironed out. Russia has never forgotten the Golden Horde of Genghis Khan, which swept west from Mongolia in the 13th century, conscripting Volga boatmen into the Khan's army and forcing local princes to kowtow. When, after 200 years, the Mongol Empire collapsed, the newly united Russians lost no time in getting even...
With nearly two-thirds of Laos currently in Communist hands, the entire northeast has been exposed to Red subversion. Posing as peddlers, river boatmen and wandering troubadours. Communist infiltrators from Laos pass out clothing and medicine, improvise antigovernment verses on old folk songs. "Lao will be Lao," they say. "The people living in this area are Laos; those who live beyond Korat are Thais." Communism is never mentioned; instead, the Reds constantly harp on the theme that the government has wilfully neglected the northeast, promise villagers a salary of $150 a month (v. Thailand's per capita income...
...hugged and kissed him, the 64-year-old lexicographer said: "Do it again and let us see who will tire first." Rowers & Reapers. As against his un surpassed ear for talk, Boswell's eye for travel was merely superior. He had a feeling for the picturesque: the boatmen singing as they crossed to Raasay and, "as we came to shore, the music of rowers was succeeded by that of reapers." He recorded traditions: whenever the head of the MacLeods or the Macdonalds died, his sword was given to the head of the other clan. But what haunted the islands...