Eisenhower Ambassador Of Good Will On World Tour

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 17

Eisenhower Ambassador Of Good Will On World Tour

(Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 1. There is bated breath in Washington and probably through the entire country as the President prepares to take off on a mission such as no American President has ever attempted. He goes less as a President than as an ambassador of good will through 13 countries and over thousands of miles. The “New York Times” says this journey may mark the emergence of a new, more energetic and hopeful American diplomacy. This newspaper and others feel confident the President’s friendly and optimistic personality will make new friends for America wherever he goes. Just as he triumphed in Bonn, London, and Paris so he will arouse enthusiasm in capitals from Rome and Rabat to Karachi and New Delhi. The Eisenhower grin speaks an international language. The only stop which Americans question is Madrid and there' it is assumed he made a hard choice between diplomacy and preference. General Franco is still an unpopular name in these parts, but as one commentator puts it, if the President is willing to go to Moscow he-should be willing to go to Madrid—and there is nothing to prevent him from speaking up for freedom in either capital. While the journey is not expected to produce a disarms-

(Specially written for N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVER.}

ment plan or to put the seal upon world peace, Washington does expect it to bring new hope for both these things by creating new cordiality among non-Communist nations. No ambassador ever went abroad better prepared. The logistics for a journey of this kind involve large and complicated problems. The published itinerary is 32 pages long and sets what might be called a killing pace. The necessary documents that must go with the President would fill a trunk.

Communications arrangements have to be as detailed as they are intricate. At all times, day and night and whether be is in Rome or Kabul, there must be instantaneous communications facilities to enable him to exercise Presidential power immediately in case any emergency arises in Washington. Documents from Washington must follow him and reach him quickly wherever he may be.

An important part of his baggage will be a bulky package of loose leaf folders, one for each country he visits, and each is a compendium of everything he and his advisers think he will need to know at each stopping place. Work on these has been going on for weeks in the White House and the State Department. The information in them comes from various sections of the State Department, from ambassadors in

countries to be visited, and from the Central Intelligence Agency. The President must be primed to grapple with hundreds of strange and unfamiliar foreign names and pronounce them correctly when the need arises and he must have a conversational grasp of problems peculiar to each cou try. Just as important, he must be put on his guard against offending local custom or making diplomatic errors. He will carry information about local geography, history, regional economic problems, succinct statements of political situations and problems and- on issues, major and minor, between a country visited and the United States and the visited country and its neighbours. He must know something of the personalities of the men he will visit and talk to and other leaders in all visited countries.

The President has been briefed to some extent on all the countries he will visit and at each stopping point he will be joined by an American diplomat from the country next on the itinerary so that on arrival he will step out of his plane with the latest information at his fingertips, or rather at the tip of his tongue. The President will have to maintain a tremendous pace and that brings up the question of health. He is in his seventieth year and has had three serious illnesses while in office. Natur--y c-

ally, he takes along his personal physician who will see that the President gets a rest period every day he is away. Questions about eating and drinking are important. It has been decided that he will take along with him his own brand of bottled drinking water, but it has been decided to take along no special food and the Presidential stomach will have to take its chance with a dozen different kinds of cooking, some of them notably exotic. However, it is expected of American diplomats in the countries visited that they diplomatically ask the President’s hosts to guard against the too exotic.

Tucked in the Presidential jet will be a wardrobe compact but varied enough to cover the damp cold of Western Europe, the mild weather of the Mediterranean, the heat of India and the snow and ice of Afghanistan. Also, there must be gifts for all potentates to be visited.

While the President was in Augusta recently, a similar jet plane flew the entire route for timing and for security and other arrangements at all stops. Everything that could be done to eliminate possible human error has been done and he will have a tried and tested staff with him all the way.

Nothing quite like this journey has ever teen known in American history and with the most popular President of this century will go an important cargo that will not slow down the jet liner —the blessings and good will of this entire nation.