Round-the-World Stroking

Vice President Spiro Agnew packed up his clubs, bade farewell to Fellow Golfer Bob Hope in Palm Springs, and embarked upon an official good-will tour of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. In all, he will be out of the country for 32 days, longer than any Vice President since Richard Nixon.

The ten nations Agnew will visit during the trip abroad, his third since taking office, have, in the main, authoritarian governments. Most have no pressing problems with the U.S., or great influence in matters of international urgency. Only in South Korea, his first official stop, where Agnew last week represented President Nixon at the third inauguration of President Chung Hee Park, was there even notable ceremonial justification for his presence.

There are U.S.-Korean problems --withdrawal of U.S. troops and possible U.S. import quotas on Korean textiles, among others. But Agnew steered clear of any substantive discussions with President Park.

Otherwise, conceded one Agnew aide: "There is no rationale for the trip as a whole, but there is a separate rationale for each of the countries."

Agnew provided some stop-by-stop rationales of stunning inconsequentiality: SPAIN. "The Spanish stop comes about as a result of Prince Juan Carlos visiting the last space shot and conversations we had there." ETHIOPIA. "Haile Selassie was in the U.S. recently. Again, this was his express wish that we visit there; we had an invitation on that one." KENYA. "There's not any particular problem there, but I don't believe there have been any American visitors in Nairobi in some time."

KUWAIT. "I don't think Kuwait has had a high-level American visitor for some time; they had been asking for one." SAUDI ARABIA. "Of course my visit there comes as a result of the recent visit of King Faisal to Washington. I happened to be sitting next to Faisal at a luncheon at the White House, and he evidenced an interest in having me visit his country if I found it convenient."

The White House line is that Agnew is carrying a message of good will as well as an "explanation of the Nixon foreign policy." That should leave ample time for golf: enroute to South Korea, Agnew toured the course in Guam. He plans a "logistics" stay in Singapore, whose Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew is an ardent golfer.

What then, is the Vice President--or the President--up to? One speculation is that the trip is a graceful easing out of Agnew, that Nixon may be giving his Vice President a farewell taste of the trappings of glory before bouncing him from the 1972 ticket. Some support can be found for the theory. Secretary of the Treasury John B. Connally Jr. was last week tapped to announce the Administration's latest economic stance, a clear sign of Presidential favor.

More likely, however, the trip is intended to upgrade the Agnew image. After his abrasive appearances on the U.S. banquet circuit, distance may lend Agnew the aura of an American statesman. Then, too, there is not much for Agnew to do at home just now. Summer months are slim ones on the political fund-raising circuit.

Costly, Innocuous. One thing Nixon could have done for his No. 2 was to assign him a more distinguished crew of traveling companions. For the Korean inaugural, the highest ranking members of his entourage were the junior U.S. Senator from New York, James Buckley, defeated former Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller--or, as the Koreans had it, the "honorable Rocker Feller"--and former Presidential Counsellor Bryce Harlow, now an executive with Procter & Gamble, who is one of Agnew's favorite tennis partners.

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