The Tractors (Contd.)

The 500 tractors Fidel Castro demanded as ransom for 1,200 imprisoned Cuban survivors of the Bay of Pigs invasion were ready, and the Tractors-for-Freedom Committee, headed by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Walter Reuther and Dr. Milton Eisenhower, was prepared to deliver them to the Cuban dictator in lots of 100. The committee still had no visible funds to pay for the tractors, but hoped to find them in 25,000 unopened letters. If and when Castro agreed to the deal, the committee would open the letters. But in order to pay the $16 million tab, each letter would have to contain a donation of $640.

Even as the envelopes piled up. so did the furor over the Kennedy-backed deal. Richard Nixon denounced the trade--which, he warned, could be completed only "at the cost of increasing the power of the tyrant." Mississippi's Representative John Bell Williams introduced a bill that would make the proposed swap a federal offense, punishable by $5,000 fine, three years in prison. Wrote an indignant reader of the New York World-Telegram and Sun: "I have been sick to my stomach with shame."

But there were still many who supported the plan on humanitarian grounds. The committee reported a sudden surge of 10,000 letters (and presumed donations) after an emotional appeal by TV's Jack Paar, who was a onetime ardent admirer of Castro's. Fund-raising drives were under way in eleven Latin American countries, and the New York Times's Tad Szulc reported an "ever-so-rare spectacle of Latin American public opinion being aroused against Premier Fidel Castro and in favor of the United States.''

In the hubbub of conflicting opinions, only one voice was silent. Fidel Castro, who has never been known to shrink from public speech, had not been heard from for two weeks. The frustrated committee finally sent an ultimatum to Havana, gave Castro until midweek to accept its offer or call the whole thing off.

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