Word: tolbert
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Today the old ways are changing. Monrovia is still beset by some of the worst slums in Africa, and they lie within 500 yards of Tubman's splendiferous $15 million Executive Mansion. But the man in the mansion today, William Richard Tolbert Jr., 59, has plans for reform, and he seems to mean business. Very few Liberians expected anything like that. Tolbert had served 19 silent and subservient years as Vice President under "Uncle Shad." He also came from the same small elite of "Americo-Liberians" who have ruled the country pretty much in their own interests for more...
...Inauguration Day in 1971, however, Tolbert toured his capital in a Volkswagen instead of the Tubman Cadillac, and he showed up for the swearing-in ceremony in an open-neck, short-sleeved safari suit instead of the Tubman top hat. He also got rid of his predecessor's $2,000,000 yacht...
More important, Tolbert dismantled Tubman's four competing security services, purged the corrupt police department and encouraged the long-muzzled press to speak out. He shook up the somnolent civil service by showing up at the stroke of 8 a.m. to demand that government offices open on time...
...night Tolbert slept in the slums of Monrovia and announced next day a program of "mats to mattresses" aimed at giving every Liberian a proper bed. As a means of developing the backward and neglected interior, he called for a year-long "national rally" to raise $10 million in development funds before his 60th birthday next month. The goal was utterly unrealistic; by last week the campaign had collected less than $2,000,000, including $250,000 cajoled from the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., the country's largest employer. But Tolbert defends his fund raising as a symbolic success...
Grand Cordon. At the inaugural ceremony, held in blistering 100° heat, President Tolbert praised Mrs. Nixon as a "testimony of the strength, solidarity and permanence of this special relationship between our countries." Afterward she conferred privately with Tolbert for half an hour; among other things, they discussed President Nixon's forthcoming China trip. The fun began the following day, when brightly clad tribal dancers performed for her on the rooftop terrace of the eight-story presidential mansion. To Mrs. Nixon, the dance was extraordinary: the pulsing beat of drums and hollow logs, the rhythmic clacking of ankle shells...