At Home and Abroad

Spiro Agnew, one of Richard Nixon's most salable commodities, is temporarily being exported to Asia this week in a model rarely seen domestically. It will be a diplomatic Agnew, entrusted with the task of soothing four allies that are apprehensive about the slow but continuing withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Far East. The message is that U.S. interest will not diminish with its force level.

After a conference with the President and Secretary of State William Rogers, Agnew got a San Clemente send-off Saturday for his eight-day hand-holding trip. His itinerary:

-- South Viet Nam: Clearly the most important, if not the trickiest stop Agnew will make, it is intended to reinforce Nixon's pledge to the Thieu government and also to provide Nixon with a fresh assessment of the progress of Vietnamization since the Cambodian invasion.

-- Thailand: With the Administration eager to get Thai troops involved in the defense of Cambodia, and the Thais displaying no haste to do so, Agnew will have a job on his hands to dispel doubts about Nixon's intentions. "They get nervous whenever somebody on the Hill says something disparaging, although it isn't the Administration that's speaking," a White House aide said.

-- South Korea: The Seoul government has already received the bad news--the withdrawal of 20,000 of the 60,000 American troops there. Agnew will repeat the Nixon position: that the remaining force is a "quite credible deterrent."

-- Taiwan: Unless Agnew is bearing a secret message from the President, the stop here looks like a courtesy call on a steadfast ally.

The Vice President's second trip to Asia occurred against a backdrop of some further domestic arguments about U.S. Indochina policy. It was disclosed last week that the Administration had quietly concluded an agreement to give Cambodia an additional $40 million worth of military equipment, on top of an $8.9 million earlier commitment. The antiwar faction in the Senate was angry but powerless to act, because the Administration can use funds already appropriated. In Cambodia itself, Communist forces ranged within a few miles of Phnom-Penh, but U.S. analysts believe that the enemy was not preparing to attack the Cambodian capital. South Vietnamese units, meanwhile, continued their operations aimed at securing strategic points.

In a rare show of unanimity that united William Fulbright and Barry Goldwater, however, the Senate voted to bar U.S. funding of foreign expeditionary forces that might be sent into Cambodia or Laos. The Administration opposes the restriction. Even if the measure survives a House-Senate conference, which is uncertain, it would not affect limited border operations. But it would cover large-scale incursions by Thais and South Vietnamese troops, unless Bangkok and Saigon want to pay their own way, and it could well complicate Agnew's mission.

Agnew himself was a major contributor to the domestic controversy last week with a harsh personal attack on two leading Senate doves. Appearing before the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Miami Beach, he went after Oregon Republican Mark Hatfield and South Dakota Democrat George S. McGovern, two of the authors of a Senate measure that would end all American combat operations in South Viet Nam by Dec. 31, 1970. Their plan, Agnew said, is a blueprint for disaster and humiliation, "chaos and Communism." He added: "One wonders if they really give a damn." In a Senate speech the next day, Hatfield asked: "What kind of men have we at the helm of government who would deliberately coerce the public into accepting their policies on the threat of being branded traitors?"

Later in the week, Agnew was again on display in his more familiar domestic role, assailing political foes without the encumbrances imposed by dealing with foreign allies. In a Los Angeles fund-raising speech, nominally in praise of Senator George Murphy, the hard-pressed Republican incumbent, Agnew opened a rough counterattack on the politically dangerous economic issue. The Democrats, he said, would spend the country into bankruptcy and socialism if given half a chance. As evidence, he noted that Democratic National Chairman Lawrence O'Brien--a frequent critic of Nixon on the economy --had presided over a Wall Street investment house before it folded. O'Brien pointed out that he was with the company only seven months and that a number of other brokerage firms are also collapsing, thanks to the bear market.

Freewheeling. Agnew may have been speaking for himself in Los Angeles, but in Miami Beach it was the Administration talking. The prose came from Nixon's hardest-hitting speechwriter, Pat Buchanan. He will soon have plenty of opportunity to keep punching. On Sept. 10, when the political season gets going in earnest, Buchanan will be in the Agnew entourage as the Vice President begins his first extended campaign foray. Also going along, in addition to Agnew's own men, will be Bryce Harlow, a Nixon Counsellor with Cabinet rank who will serve as top contact with the White House; Speechwriter William Safire; and Martin Anderson, special consultant to the President on domestic issues, who will handle research.

The trip will be made on a chartered

Boeing 727 loaded with communications gear for instant contact with the White House, and it is the Nixon battle plan for the congressional elections that Agnew will be carrying with him. How he executes the plan may well determine the tone of the campaign. The swing is clearly aimed at altering the makeup of the Senate and will take Agnew to 13 Western, Midwestern and border states, where he is most effective.

At each stop, the schedulers have sought out "media zones"--cities where Agnew and the Republican congressional candidates can get maximum television and statewide newspaper coverage. The preliminary itinerary includes Wyoming, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Michigan, Wisconsin, both Dakotas, Indiana, Illinois, Utah, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Even the most sanguine Republicans see no hope of changing Democratic control of the House in an off year, and it would take a small miracle to achieve the seven-seat net gain needed for Senate control. But the G.O.P. hopes to pick up four or five Senate seats and, at the least, muffle some of the anti-Administration voices there.

Aside from his current Asian trip, Agnew has all but abandoned nonpolitical chores in Washington. He largely avoids the Senate these days. Last spring he was publicized as the chairman of the Nixon Cabinet committee for desegregation of schools, but he has missed its last seven meetings. He is Nixon's chief liaison with state governments, but did not attend the last Governors Conference. Soon, however, he will be seeing many of the Governors, as well as Senators, in the more combative forum of the fall campaign.

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