Mellow Diplomacy

A shiny new jeep with IKE AND MAMIE stenciled on the hood picked up Secretary of State Christian A. Herter as he climbed down from the Marine Corps helicopter that had whirred him from Washington to Gettysburg. The President met Herter at his farmhouse door, took him inside for a 75-minute discussion on the Western Big Four Foreign Ministers' meeting just concluded at Paris. Herter's verdict on the meeting: "Very successful." Next day, he went to Walter Reed Hospital, briefed ailing Predecessor John Foster Dulles.

With remarkable speed that was attributed, in part at least, to Chris Herter, the U.S., Britain, France and West Germany had reached fast agreement on a compromise package (see FOREIGN NEWS) to put up to U.S.S.R. Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in Geneva next week. Essentially, the plan was based on the U.S. intention to work toward free elections in Germany and to stay in Berlin. But it offered some new variations on those themes: 1) postponement of elections pending efforts of an East-West German commission to get together, 2) some sort of gradual inspected disarmament in Germany if the commission makes progress toward unification, and 3) the possibility of adding

United Nations supervision of free Berlin.

Was Herter optimistic? a reporter asked. "Well," said he, "if I knew what frame of mind the other fellow was in I could answer that better." But the best new plus for the West at this early date was the frame of mind of new Secretary of State Herter. In Paris he showed a sort of genial, mellow, welcoming warmth along with known professional skill. "He knows his dossier," said a French diplomat.

In his warmest moment Paris-born Chris Herter went to the musty Ecole Alsatienne on the Left Bank, where he was a student at age six, told the students of today in fluent French: "I see myself again as if it were yesterday, leaving for the Ecole . . . when I see little Americans going off to play baseball in the U.S. I cannot help thinking of the nice games of 'hunter's ball' that I played with my little playmates in the streets."

Diplomacy, as onetime Massachusetts Governor Herter well knew, was much more than mellow charm, mastery of detail. One major ingredient was getting the backing of the U.S.--and this week he would take to television to outline the Geneva prospects. Another was getting the measure of the opponent: next week's Geneva meeting could bring real progress, said he, "should the Soviet Union demonstrate an honest desire to negotiate."

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