![]() ![]() Oshkosh Truck's distributor, a separate Swiss company run by Canadians, which handled the sale and played a key role in modification of the trucks, according to the distributor's documents, refuses to comment on the case. The manufacturer, the Oshkosh Truck Corporation, says the sale was justified when it was carried out in 1978 and that the alterations involved fraud against the company. The State Department says the truck sale was approved in good faith and that there is little the Government can do about it now. The evolution of the truck sale and its aftermath, reconstructed from Government and corporate documents and interviews with more than a dozen participants, illustrates the difficulties of enforcing Government bans against the export of American technology and military equipment to unfriendly nations. Today all 400 trucks have been rebuilt and are hauling Soviet-made tanks in Libya, according to the State Department and to Canadian mechanics who recently returned from servicing the vehicles. Leading members of the Wisconsin Congressional delegation, including Senator William Proxmire, intervened at the State Department in behalf of the manufacturer. The manufacturer informed the State Department that it would be extremely difficult and expensive for Libya to modify the trucks for military use. The Libyan Government, which was barred from receiving military equipment made in the United States, provided written guarantees that the vehicles would be used only for agricultural purposes. ![]() Four years ago, the United States approved the sale to Libya of 400 heavy-duty trucks manufactured in Wisconsin. ![]()
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