(2 of 2)
All this outside aid has made striking changes in Mongolia. The sweeping mile-high plateau between the snowy Altai mountains and the Gobi desert is now gashed with gang-plowed collective fields, which have yielded so well that last year Mongolia was able to export grain. The trans-Mongolian railroad's locomotives spew sparks among the golden buttercups and tiny scarlet lilies of some of the world's finest pasture land, where for centuries the sturdy Mongolian ponies had been the fastest means of transportation. A quarter of the country's million-odd inhabitants have deserted their hide-covered tents for apartments in modern Ulan Bator (pop. 180,000) and four other 10,000-plus cities. Some 100,000 Mongolian children and adults are in school. Though its 21 million head of horses, camels, goats, yaks and sheep (now nearly 80% collectively owned ) remain the center of its economy. Mongolia is beginning to produce oil, coal, textiles and metals.
Broader Horizons. Mongolia's Premier Yumzhagiin Tsedenbal has dexterously used his pivotal position to try to acquire the status of an independent nation. He sent a Mongolian trade mission to Czechoslovakia last month to buy Czech machinery and equipment. Another delegation in Tokyo concluded a deal swapping Japanese machinery and equipment for animal products. Mongolia has established diplomatic relations not only with all the nations of the Soviet bloc, but also with such neutrals as India. Nepal, Burma. Yugoslavia. Cambodia and Guinea, and is bidding actively for U.S. recognition and U.N. membership.
Undoubtedly, Outer Mongolia is a Communist satellite. The question seems to be: Whose?