Westward Bound

It was mad-dogs-and-Englishmen weather in Washington and, although the air conditioners whirred throughout the city, everyone left who could. Members of Congress had dispersed to the four corners of the nation, and by this week President Ford expects to be swimming, playing tennis and loafing in the cool heights of Vail, Colo. That will be his way of marking the first week of his second year in the presidency.

He could do so with considerable satisfaction, since he has managed to keep confounding the critics who are waiting for him to lose his political balance. Friends and foes alike had wondered if he would be overshadowed by the Russians at Helsinki, but he turned out to be very much the star of the show (see THE WORLD). Both there and on the rest of his ten-day trip, the President was especially courted by the East Europeans, who hope he will keep applying pressure on the Russians to allow them more independence.

Back in the White House, Ford shifted his attention from West to East and started patching up relations with Japan, which had been shaken by the U.S. rapprochement with mainland China and the Communist victory in Viet Nam. Visiting Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Miki made it clear that Japan wants a strong and continuing American presence in the Far East, and the two leaders also reaffirmed their view that the independence of South Korea is "necessary for peace and security in East Asia, including Japan."

Pointed Ceremony. Much of Ford's week was devoted to the ceremonial aspects of the presidency. He crossed the Potomac River to the Lee-Custis mansion in Arlington to "correct a 110-year oversight of American history" by making a formal restoration of citizenship to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The most pointed ceremony of the week occurred on Saturday --Ford's anniversary day in office. The President and Betty Ford had dinner with Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and his wife Happy. The get-together was a gesture of support for Rockefeller, who has recently come under fire. Ford's newly appointed campaign director, Howard ("Bo") Callaway, wondered out loud on a couple of occasions if Rocky should not be dropped from the ticket in order to reassure the Republican right. The dinner was an obvious demonstration that Callaway had been told to cool it.

While pleased in general with the many assessments of Ford's first year, the White House is nettled by criticism that the President has no vision for America. Ford said in a TV interview last week that he had "instituted this year what we call a 'no new program' approach," and his aides think that his politics of reduced expectations correctly reflects the mood of the nation. "The President's philosophy is that government excessively dominates the lives of individuals," says a White House official. "That is the thread of continuity that runs through his approach."

The White House view of the political scene will soon be put to the test. Ford will interrupt his two-week vacation in Vail to make a swing around the Midwest, a region vital to his election prospects. Among his stops will be such archetypical events as an American Legion meeting in Minneapolis, a hardware industry conference in Chicago and the dedication of the Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Leadership Research Center in Pekin, Ill.--a reminder of how far Ford has come from the days in the 1960s when he and Senator Dirksen broadcast barbs against the Democrats in a weekly TV appearance dubbed "The Ev and Jerry Show."

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