The Double Dare

"How do you like our weather?" a British newsman piped up as flashbulbs popped and dignitaries shook hands. Replied Vice President Richard Nixon, who with Wife Pat had arrived in London in a foul fog on a four-day good-will trip to Britain: "We have fog in San Francisco and smog in Los Angeles, so it's a lot like California weather." At once London's Daily Mail reported that Nixon had "managed to make everyone feel that he would have been deeply disappointed if it had been a clear day."

Technically speaking, Nixon was visiting London as the President's representative at the dedication of a memorial chapel in St. Paul's Cathedral to 28,000 U.S. World War II dead. But before he arrived, a disdainful British press made clear its conviction that the Vice President, while welcome as U.S. emissary, was not likely to make a personal hit.

"Plastic politician," said London's Observer; "Organization man," said the News Chronicle; "Very spirit of togetherness," sneered the London Daily Mirror; "Mechanical smile," said the Daily Herald; "Superb political gamesmanship," said the Manchester Guardian. In one of the odd situations of modern diplomacy, Nixon was personally on trial and double-dared to make a misstep.

"Our English Heritage." Without changing clothes, he sped off from the welcoming ceremonies in Victoria Station to address a luncheon meeting of the upper-crust Pilgrims Society at the Savoy, got a nice introduction from the Pilgrims' Toastmaster Lord Birkett as "a product of that great American tradition that the village boy can rise to high office, [and] has invested the office of Vice President with higher importance and greater prestige than it has ever enjoyed." Nixon in turn made his tribute to Britain: "Every time an American citizen acts politically within the democratic context, we reflect our English heritage." That said, he turned to a basic principle of the Anglo-American alliance--collective security--that is popular in Britain, and pointedly applied it to a crisis that is not. "The free world," said Nixon, "could render no greater disservice to the cause of peace than to fail to stand firm as we have in the Formosa Strait against the use of aggressive force."

Nixon's first gain: warm applause from the Pilgrims, a stilling of press criticism down to Beaverbrook press notes about his "Hollywood-style G-men" (he had two Secret Service men with him), about the "22-ft." length of his Cadillac.

"The Next Best Thing." Next day the Nixons moved into royalty's orbit, and there, beside the Queen, began to make more British friends. In cold, misted St. Paul's, the Vice President watched the Queen dedicate the American Memorial Chapel, built out of British funds contributed by British families in the austerity-thin days after World War II. After that he lunched with the Queen and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace, at the Queen's suggestion ventured beyond protocol chitchat to talk foreign policy. He called on Winston Churchill, made a little news by disclosing that Churchill had been invited to visit Ike in Washington in May, and might accept. And that night in the 500-year-old Guildhall, where General Eisenhower made his famed 1945 victory speech, Nixon's trip hit a new high.

There were warmups from Prince Philip and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (after Ike, said Mac, Nixon was "the next best thing"). Then Nixon spoke on winning "the victory of plenty over want." Khrushchev, he said, has called for an economic contest between systems. "I am sure that all of us would be delighted to accept the challenge. In such a contest no one could really lose . . . We need to apply in this field the same determination, willingness, and cooperation which enabled us to build the military strength which deters aggression today."

Night after that, treating the Queen to Thanksgiving turkey at the U.S. embassy residence, Nixon even got an unexpected human plus. Somebody in Washington forgot to pack his tuxedo; Nixon had to borrow one from a newsman, got nice press notices about "the man who came to dinner without his dinner jacket."

Beard the Critics. More and more as the press fog cleared, Nixon followed up his groups of critics, met them in public and private debates point by point. He argued with Laborite Chief Hugh Gaitskell and supporters against Labor's hopes for "disengagement" of allied military force in Europe, won Laborites' praise as levelheaded and responsible. He took a traditional ribbing from Oxford University students, who lost no time in pointing up the implied challenge to Nixon in the election victory of New York's Nelson Rockefeller, is IT ROCKY AT THE TOP? asked one placard.

An American student asked how Rockefeller affected "the problem of Republican leadership in 1960," and Nixon deftly noted how quickly Americans at Oxford picked up British understatement. Said Nixon: "If Rockefeller should get the nomination for the presidency in 1960, he will make an excellent campaigner and a fine candidate."

He went before a press conference of 400 British newsmen, televised in Britain as in the U.S., turned back loaded questions with a load of his own. Items:

P: Red China recognition: "It seems to us that millions should have the opportunity of being Chinese without having to feel that they owe allegiance to the Communist regime."

P: Eisenhower's leadership: "I know that to many it may appear that he is not leading as vigorously as they would like, but many of these same people would disagree with the decisions he took about Lebanon, Quemoy and Matsu."

At conference's end he got a good hand.

Thus, as Nixon headed back home at week's end in an Air Force VIP DC-6B, Britain's press tacitly admitted that here, at least, was a man who knew his business thoroughly and therefore merited respect --in Britain, more than a casual recommendation, and for U.S.-British friendship more than a casual plus. Summed up the New York Times's London Correspondent Drew Middleton: "Nixon arrived billed as an uncouth adventurer in the political jungles, departed trailing clouds of statesmanship and esteem. In four days here filled with opportunities for the most horrendous mistakes, the Vice President did not make a misstep."

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