The Scrutable Occidental

THE CONGRESS The Scrutable Occidental There will always be a whooping crane, Deo volente. And there will probably always be a whooping Congressman. This migratory species is recognized by its raucous cry and by its frequent fumbling, bumbling, freeloading flights to exotic lands, where it lays eggs of oddest shapes. A splendid example of this rara avis is Charles Orlando Porter, 40, Democratic Congressman from Oregon's Fourth District, who returned last week from a fact-finding flight through the islands along the Asian littoral, a flight that created more embarrassment and consternation than a plague of gooney birds.

Oregon-born (Klamath Falls) Harvard-man ('41) Charlie Porter, a World War II Air Corps ground officer, settled down quietly on the lowly House Post Office and Civil Service Committee after his election in 1956. But like others of the species, he soon discovered that international affairs could bring him fame of a sort and big headlines back home. The discovery came when he commendably tried to find out what had happened to one of his constituents. Pilot Gerald Lester Murphy. Murphy disappeared and was reported murdered after telling how he piloted a plane that carried Basque Scholar Jesus de Galindez to an appointment with death in the Dominican Republic (TIME, April 2, 1956 et seq.).

Murphy was never found, but Charlie Porter found his role. After declaring war on Dominican Dictator Rafael Trujillo, he next turned his attention to seething Cuba. When Fidel Castro invited a group of U.S. Congressmen to Havana on an expenses-paid inspection tour, only Porter and Harlem's Adam Clayton Powell, another have-tux Congressman, accepted. But Castro turned out to be a disappointment ("I've urged him from the first to shave his beard," says Porter), and Porter thereupon looked around for new worlds to explore.

Battle of Formosa. The Orient seemed promising. Porter, an outspoken advocate of recognition of Red China, decided to go to Red Peking. When the State Department repeatedly refused to validate his passport. Porter sued Secretary of State Christian Herter, charging violation of congressional rights--but prudently trimmed his travel plans to include only Formosa, Japan and Okinawa. His official mission was to interview civilian employees abroad and report back to the Post Office and Civil Service Committee on the state of their morale, but Porter clearly had bigger things in mind. Just before his take-off early this month, he proclaimed that Nationalist China's President "Chiang Kai-shek should be sent to an old soldiers' home, preferably one with barbed wire around it," and sneeringly referred to the Chinese Nationalist armed forces as a "rubber dagger" and a "toothless tiger."

On his arrival in Tokyo Charlie Porter was understandably hesitant about going on to Formosa. At his request, Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II made some discreet inquiries, assured Porter that he was still welcome. He was. Although Chiang was, unsurprisingly, too preoccupied to see him, the top officials of the Nationalist government turned out to greet Porter at a dinner at the home of the U.S. charge d'affaires, on the day of his arrival. Sensing a certain "strain in the air," Porter opened the conversation jovially: "I suppose that if I convince you of my point of view, you'll all be shot." A glacial silence descended on the party, and Porter returned to Tokyo next day.

Battle of the Embassy. Back in Japan, Porter got in a row with able U.S. Ambassador MacArthur at a private meeting. Calling in the press later, Porter charged, among other things, that MacArthur had attacked his position on Red China and had promised "to debate the issue back in the U.S." Not so, retorted MacArthur; he had never suggested a debate. "Porter said I was being unfriendly and uncooperative," said MacArthur. "He said, I will take care of you.' " Retorted Porter as he prepared to fly home: "I still say MacArthur challenged me to a public debate, but the ambassador's excess of adrenaline unfortunately has clouded his vision and memory."

In the wake of Porter's memorable trip, his proposed recognition of Red China met with stony nonrecognition in the two places most concerned. "Crude interference in China's internal affairs!" cried Radio Peking. "Preposterous," said Hong Kong's pro-Nationalist newspaper, Shih Pao: "Our American friends should soberly think of the damage done to U.S. good will abroad by Porter's shallow views."

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