On the Road

Was anybody still home tending the shop? Among American officials abroad last week:

General Maxwell Taylor, in the Far East on a fact-finding tour before settling down to his new job as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, received South Korea's 30-jewelled Order of Service Merit for his leadership of the U.S. Eighth Army during the Korean War. Taylor later flew into Taiwan for weekend talks with Chiang Kaishek. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, in Italy to complete his 17-day, six-nation tour of the Middle East and Europe, was treated to a huge ovation in Naples. "Viva Johnson! Viva America!" cried the throngs. "Viva Napoli!" bellowed the Vice President. When he discovered a group of Italians about to emigrate to the U.S., Johnson hustled some future Democratic votes by observing that President Kennedy had recently named Anthony Celebrezze, who was born about 90 miles from Naples, as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Later, at a private audience in the Vatican, Johnson presented a model Telstar satellite to Pope John XXIII. Johnson and the Pope, both voluble men, talked for 40 minutes, double the scheduled length of the audience. Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall, in the Soviet Union to inspect hydroelectric facilities, hit it off famously with the Russian officials. Declared one: "We have known you literally only a few hours, but you have become dear to us." Udall even managed to persuade some Russians to play touch football in the shadow of one mighty Soviet dam, then threw a pass for the game's only touchdown. After swimming and dining with Khrushchev, Udall said that the Russian Premier had challenged the U.S. to an "energy race." Accompanying Udall to Russia was Poet Robert Frost, 88, whom the Secretary had adopted as his seer ("Udall is poetry-struck," says Frost). Frost chatted with schoolchildren, appeared on TV, talked poetry into the night with young Russians at a cafe while a jazz trio blared away. When Frost suffered a stomach upset, Khrushchev sent over two doctors, then came himself for an hour-long discussion of U.S.-Soviet rivalry in the years to come. Khrushchev told Frost: "We've seen the last war we're going to see."

Frost called Khrushchev "a kind of ruffian," but, said the poet, "He's our enemy, but he's a great man. He's not a coward. He's not afraid of us, and we're not afraid of him." -- Harlem's Democratic Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr., 53, was in Europe ostensibly to study equality of opportunity for Continental women. He had in tow a couple of shapely technical advisers: Conine Huff, a former Miss U.S.A. contestant (36-24-36) and a $5,014 receptionist in his office, and Mrs. Tamara J. Wall, a divorcee, who is a $9,000 staffer on his House Education and Labor Committee. In Paris, Powell established his research headquarters at the fashionable Crillon hotel. In Greece, the Powell party enjoyed swimming and nightclubbing at a luxury seaside resort near Athens. As U.S. criticism of his jaunty junket mounted.

Powell declared in Madrid that what he was really studying was the Common Market. Then Powell, who has one of the worse attendance records on Capitol Hill, cut his trip short and flew to Puerto Rico, where he was greeted with a kiss and a hug by his wife -- who happens to be on his House office payroll at $12,974 as a secretary.

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