Word: dumont
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...McGovern leadership at Harvard is not yet well organized. James Dumont '75, the new student coordinator, admitted that "I came into the job by default, it's all Jamie's doing." He also reported a noticeable lack of enthusiasm among some people who had been selected to complete the campaign leadership for the fall. He said that a couple of key people were kind of disappointed" by McGovern's summer performance...
...Dumont's neglect of realpolitik as a factor in decision-making leads the reader to believe that blind whim and guerrilla zeal govern Casaros administration. Dumont should have realized that many apparently irrational economic decisions can be understood by other, especially political, criteria: most notably the naive goal-setting which produced last year's sugar harvest fiasco...
This blind spot enables Dumont to gloss over the real angonies of policy decisions. With the effective aid of hindsight he can confidently, even arrogantly, quantify any situation. As predictability is a solid test of analytic accuracy. Dumont could have better conveyed his self-confidence with some forecasts about Cuba's sugar production. Instead he wavers, refusing to commit himself in this controversial area...
...Where he lacks substantiation, he relies heavily on his reputation for authority. For Americans unfamiliar with his works who might not accept his word as truth, his style is both obnoxious and unconvincing. Only his obvious comprehensive understanding of Cuba and its economic problems might soothe them. One wishes Dumont could have accomplished his task with more humility and humanity for his readers...
...sugar obsession" characterized Cuba's new line. Despite warnings of economists that a ten million ton zafra [harvest] in 1970 was unattainable (Dumont argued that 1975 would be a more realistic date for such a goal), Castro made it a matter of honor to fulfill the revolution's goals. Emphasizing political spirit and good will- a factor Karol ignored in his Russia 1930's comparison- the harvest brought temporarily renewed optimism, as any Venceremos will tell you. Yet the cost of the failure was staggering: serious dislocations in the economy resulted because most of the labor force was diverted...