Nixon Abroad: Applause and Admonitions

IT is one thing for the U.S. to reduce voluntarily its commitments and its military establishment overseas because of a realistic assessment of what a great power can and should do to influence the affairs of other nations. It is far different when such a retrenchment is seen as impelled by outside powers or internal dissent. That could be taken as a sign of weakness. Increasingly concerned that the Soviet Union and others may hold just such a view of the U.S. today, Richard Nixon last week used his European trip to stress U.S. strength.

Though the sudden death of Gamal Abdel Nasser dramatically diverted world attention from the President's journey, Nixon's message was far from muted. While with Pope Paul at the Vatican, he observed incongruously that he was about to visit the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean--"the mightiest military force that exists in the world on any ocean." The Pope gently raised a sensitive topic, expressing his hope for a prompt peace in Viet Nam. Then, in a ten-minute talk to seminarians at the Vatican's North American College, Nixon used the word "power" no fewer than 14 times. He referred to himself "very humbly," as the "President of the strongest nation in the world, with more power perhaps than any leader in the world."

Worldwide Words. Aboard the aircraft carrier Saratoga 30 miles from Rome in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Nixon recalled the U.S. role in trying to confine the war in Jordan and told the sailors: "Believe me, never has American power been used with more effectiveness." It was, he said, "a restrained and diplomatic use of power." Earlier, he emerged from a chat at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport with 32 Americans who were en route home after being released by Arab hijackers to say that the erstwhile hostages endorsed his policy. At the Southern European headquarters of NATO in Naples, he described the alliance as "perhaps the most successful of any in the history of the world." He insisted that despite speculation about U.S. troop withdrawals from NATO forces in West Germany, the U.S. commitment to maintaining NATO's strength was as firm as ever.

When a world leader travels, the apparatus of modern communications spreads his every word worldwide. Thus Nixon was speaking not only to his hosts but to the Soviet Union and the Arab world, as well as to friendlier nations seeking reassurance of U.S. firmness. Wherever he went, he also talked as the peacemaker, probing especially for ideas on how to maintain the precarious ceasefire in the Middle East and how to get U.N.-mediated negotiations going. All of the leaders Nixon visited, including Pope Paul, Italy's President Giuseppe Saragat, Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito, Spain's General Francisco Franco and Britain's Prime Minister Edward Heath, applauded the effort and urged its continuation --though Nasser's death and the Jordanian war make the prospect for progress more tenuous than ever (see THE WORLD).

Two Tough Lines. Nasser's passing did, however, enable Nixon to send HEW Secretary Elliot Richardson to Cairo for the funeral, and Richardson, a former Under Secretary of State, lingered to press Egypt's interim leaders to extend the temporary cease-fire along the Suez Canal past the Nov. 5 cutoff. Soviet Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin also conferred with possible successors to Nasser--and Soviet attitudes may well hold the key to peace in the region.

While Russian intentions continue to puzzle the West, the outward signs seem to indicate that the Kremlin may be listening more to Nixon's rhetoric of power than to his peace pleas. Taking a tough line of its own, Moscow last week scoffed at U.S. warnings against building a Soviet submarine base in Cuba as an attempt to fan a "war psychosis." It chastised the U.S. for having threatened "intervention" in Jordan and attacked America for aiding Zionists. There was a danger that the posturing of both Washington and Moscow could chill U.S.-Soviet relations at a crucial moment. Aside from the critical Middle East question, negotiators for the U.S., Britain, France and Russia are trying to work out new guarantees for access to West Berlin. U.S.Soviet talks on limiting strategic arms are to resume next month in Helsinki.

One of the more satisfying elements emerging from Nixon's trip was the remarkable rapport he developed with Josip Broz Tito. The marshal spared Nixon embarrassment by choosing to remain in Belgrade to keep his date with the U.S. President instead of attending the funeral of Nasser, a longtime friend. The decision surprised everyone, including Nixon. It was based on Tito's shrewd and tough analysis of pragmatic priorities. As one of his admiring aides put it: "He figured that it was now more important to talk to a live and influential President than watch the burial of a dead one."

Whisky v. Milk. At first Tito played the visit in a deliberately low key; there were no big advance buildups, no speeches at the airport. He invited only 32 guests to a black-tie dinner at the old Royal Palace and used a toast to deliver a stern admonition on the uses of power by big nations. "Universal peace and stability cannot be achieved by the big powers alone," he said. Tito argued that the world cannot be divided into blocs, and that "stable peace cannot rest on the balance of strength and terror." Then he pointedly coupled that argument with U.S. involvement in Viet Nam.

Nixon deftly deflected the criticism, arguing that the U.S. was in Viet Nam only to help people "build their own lives in accordance with their own aspirations." Referring indirectly to Tito's break with the Soviet Union in 1948, Nixon pleased Tito by adding that "Yugoslavia, by its example, has given heart to those who would choose their own paths." He called Tito "a giant of the world scene."

As the visit continued through other dinners, private meetings and motorcades, the two men seemed to draw closer. Nixon was the first U.S. President to visit Belgrade, and the six hours he spent with Tito was a longer period than he has devoted to any foreign leader in a single day since becoming President. Tito described Nixon to aides as "intelligent, pragmatic, competent and in some areas tough." Nixon drew heavily on Tito's continuing knowledge of both Soviet Communism and the Arab world--the two concerns at the focus of his trip.

The mood of the two men became ever more amiable. When Nixon twitted Tito for ordering a Scotch and soda at a morning meeting, Tito, 78, replied: "When you get older, whisky is much better for the blood than milk." Tito even changed his own plans and decided to accompany Nixon on a visit to Kumrovec, where Tito and his 14 brothers and sisters (none of whom survive) were all born in the same bed in a white stucco house. Asking Tito to walk among the villagers while photographers and newsmen watched, Nixon said: "We've got to get this place on the map."

Although the Yugoslav crowds were somewhat less ebullient than were the Rumanians who mobbed Nixon on his visit to Bucharest last year, they responded warmly whenever he got out of his car to mingle with them. To the dismay of his security guards, Nixon repeatedly followed the same handshaking tactics in Rome and Madrid. The largest crowds of the tour cheered Nixon and Franco, before Dick and Pat flew to London for a relatively quiet visit with Heath and Queen Elizabeth. Nixon's brief stay included a working session devoted largely to Middle East affairs, in which top British officials expressed concern over the growing naval presence of the U.S.S.R. in the Indian Ocean.

Then the Nixons stopped in Ireland for a visit to their ancestors' homeland. As they headed back to Washington, the inevitable question arose about presidential excursions abroad: What was accomplished? In terms of the immediate problems of war and peace, the answer this time is: Very little. The trip had not been set up to settle major problems.

Yet the atmospherics were significant. Aside from showing the flag with a flourish, Nixon demonstrated again the wide reach of his office and of U.S. policy. His entree to the spiritual fortress that is the Vatican, the facility with which he dealt with a Communist ruler in Belgrade and a Falangist in Madrid, as well as formal allies in Rome and London--all combined to convey a sense of healthy diversity. Massive television coverage showed him not only in formal association with world leaders but in human communication with ordinary citizens. Grinning, standing on a car, his arms flung to the sky, the huzzahs of foreign crowds filling the air, he was warmed personally and benefited politically. The trip was one more reminder that an American President, as a politician and statesman, has a global constituency.

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