Word: tractor
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...then, inevitably, the word got out that President Kennedy was behind the whole U.S. effort. He had also assured the fund-raising committee that contributions toward Caterpillars for Castro would be tax-exempt-even though the particular sort of bulldozer-equipped tractor that Castro was demanding is well suited for work on jet airstrips and missile-launching sites. The secret out, President Kennedy admitted that he had indeed given sanction to the deal. But, he said, indicating that he himself would contribute to the fund, he had acted more in a private than in an official capacity. He gave...
...side there are those like Richard Nixon, who declare that the tractor deal is blackmail--another disastrous loss of prestige for the U.S. Nixon's position is probably the sanest criticism of the Castro proposal, since Nixon is simply capitalizing on the American public's worry about its prestige abroad, a concern that cost Nixon votes in the recent campaign. But in the more extreme versions of this attempt to exploit Castro's offer by crying blackmail, there are ugly hints of another cry that one would prefer not to hear in American politics again: appeasement...
Kennedy supporters assess Latin American reaction to the tractor deal as largely hostile to Fidel Castro, and believe that the U.S. has scored an unthinking propaganda coup. But whatever his critics or supporters decide, Kennedy was right to accept the offer. By spurning it, he would have been betraying the men the U.S. landed in Cuba, and giving Castro still another opportunity to remind Latin Americans of a fact that already know--that the burden of blame for Cuba today rests on the shoulders of the United States. Our pattern of denial must...
...know Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Urdu, Mandarin, Arabic? If so, could you merely understand a foreigner speaking the language, or read a newspaper, give a short talk about the U.S., write a letter? Can you drive a tractor, run a bulldozer, handle surveyor's tools, operate a power boat, use radio equipment? Are you on any special diets? Do you suffer from allergies? How well do you really know the country in which you would like to serve...
...efforts with peasant slyness, cheerful inefficiency and occasional open rebellion. When he does get a field mowed, the hay is promptly stolen by farmers from a neighboring collective run by a fat and crafty Ukrainian. And, for once in a Soviet novel, a girl proves more lovable than a tractor: lush, hot-eyed Lukeria soon shows Davidov that there are better uses for a meadow than grazing cattle...