Problems – Language

The “unbundling’ of services and other product differences between Universal Life and Ordinary Life cause current literature to be inapplicable, as well as insufficient, for Universal Life.

1984 Journal – American Academy of Actuaries

I then said, “No, read the agreement. We’re not going to ask for that kind of thing.”
I was prepared to say, although I couldn’t commit us to this, that anything that was used up we never would ask them to pay for.
Later we had a terrific argument over the difference between “used up” and “used.”
They translated the agreement into Russian using the word that we would have called “used,” that is, not new.
So, when we got into negotiations with them and said that they must return some things which were not “used up,” they thought we were using the word “used.”
Therefore, they said, “Well, these have been used.“

It wasn’t until [Charles] Bohlen was in negotiations, and heard the Russian word that he turned to our side and said, “You know, you’re not using the same word.”

Then he got the agreement out and found that the translation was wrong.
The word “used” was in there instead of “used up.
- “Consumed” was our word; “lost, consumed or destroyed.”
- “Consumed” was translated to them as “used.”

This was one of the minor stumbling points of the negotiations that caused a long delay.

— Oral History Interview with Michael H. Cardozo

Washington, D.C., May 29, 1975 – by Richard D. McKinzie

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/oral-histories/cardozom