Nation: Against the Grain

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Last September, exasperated by Yugoslavia's dissident Communist Dictator and his blanket defense of Soviet nuclear testing, President Kennedy vowed that the U.S. would no longer give aid to nations that profess neutralism while supporting Communism. As a first step in implementing that policy, the State Department pointedly held up approval of Tito's request for 500,000 tons of surplus U.S. wheat. Tito reacted in character: he made a bitterly anti-U.S. speech, and in time-tried Communist dialectic, somehow managed to claim that the U.S. was interfering with Yugoslavia's affairs by withholding the wheat. For Tito, such abuse had its benefits: last week the State Department agreed to ship Tito the wheat he needs for his drought-starved land.

State denied that there was any connection between Tito's attack and approval of the deal but offered little positive explanation of the latest gift. The 500,000-ton shipment, worth about $30 million, will be sent to Yugoslavia as a surplus crop under terms of a law that provides for payment in local currency rather than in dollars. Under this law, Tito has already received some $64 million worth of agricultural commodities this year, raising his total haul in U.S. assistance since 1949 beyond the $2 billion mark—more than Belgium, Norway or the Philippines has received.