The Trail of Informality

By scrapbook measurements, Vice President Nixon's 28-day, ten-country swing through Mexico and the Caribbean area was a bulging success. It brought reams of enthusiastic newspaper stories, and snapshots of Dick and Pat Nixon getting keys to cities, eating bananas in banana republics, shaking hands with grinning laborers, sipping coconut milk, greeting hospital patients, and--finally--getting the big welcome-home hug from their kids after landing in Washington last weekend. But between the scrapbook pages there was another story--the story of grueling, 18-hour days, of hard cramming that would stagger a Phi Beta Kappa, of life out of suitcases, and schedules regulated right down to an item reading "Rest--ten minutes."

Simple Utility. The Nixons, covering 8,500 miles in a plush Air Force Constellation, traveled light for visiting diplomats. The Vice President took only two pairs of shoes--sport black for day, smooth-toed black for evening wear; two white dinner jackets and one black one, six business suits and enough shirts to last between laundries. Pat had five hats and a small flexible wardrobe that she turned into a variety of fresh-looking combinations to fit the occasion.

Along the way they learned to live a life of simple utility. Nixon would shave his heavy, black beard close in the morning with a safety razor, then would slick up with his electric razor (if local voltage permitted) before dinner. Pat found it easiest to wash out her own nylons at overnight stops.

Complex Briefing. At every stop, Nixon delighted his hosts by talking knowledgeably off the cuff about local problems. His knowledge was no accident. Aboard the plane he paid close attention to the good advice of Assistant Secretary of State Henry Holland (who doubled as chief translator). At each stop, the ranking State Department careerman from the country next on the list would join the party to bring the latest word on the situation ahead. Not once, in addressing a total of some 70,000 people and shaking 22,500 hands, did Nixon slip seriously.

Overall, Nixon was convinced that the countries of Central America and the Caribbean should form a regional coalition to insure their economic and political stability. He was tremendously impressed with U.S. State Department careerists in the countries he visited, came to believe that they are far more capable of administering economic aid than the Foreign Operations Administration. He was perhaps proudest of his success in soothing, at least temporarily, the Central American feud between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Nixon himself will be remembered in Haiti for another' talent. Sugar-rich Haiti has long smarted because President Paul Magloire prefers whisky to rum. During a formal reception last week, Dick Nixon waved photographers away, took President Magloire aside and showed him how a jigger of Haitian rum, a half teaspoon of sugar, soda water and plenty of squeezed lime juice make a wonderful rum collins.

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