NIXON: TARGET ON THE HOME FRONT

NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE:

ALL Americans, of whatever party, will wish to honor the unflinching courage both the Nixons displayed in very grave danger. We urge Congress to strike a special medal in their honor.

Americans always put politics aside when the nation's honor is involved.

The flag that was dragged in the dirt at Caracas was the flag of all of us. The spittle that struck Nixon and his wife was meant for all of us. And the perils which the Nixons braved were braved for all of us.

NEW YORK POST: VICE President Nixon's Latin American journey has ended in a total debacle for the U.S. No one can question the concern for Nixon's safety voiced by President Eisenhower. But the flamboyant flight of American troops to the scene will surely be recorded as one of the most monstrous blunders of our ill-fated Latin American diplomacy. The President, whose capacity for indecision has become historic, chose exactly the wrong moment and the wrong method to prove that he is a man of action. The President acted like the Communist caricature of the Yankee imperialist. As for Nixon, he has greatly diminished sympathy for his behavior by a vulgar attempt to convert this dismal tour into a presidential campaign trip. He had established his valor in Peru; his insistence on a repeat performance in Venezuela indicates that he was utterly seduced by his press notices, and incapable of recognizing his own limitations.

Columnist ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: EVERYONE in this country must have been concerned at the demonstration in Peru against the U.S. and Vice President Nixon, who is our good will ambassador. But it certainly was not wise for the Vice President to go against the advice of the people who knew the area and begged him not to try and keep his appointment at the university. Like all young men. however, he wanted to prove his courage. This is understandable but sometimes leads to unfortunate results.

Our policy of giving military aid to foreign nations instead of actually raising the living standards in those countries has been a mistake.

Columnist WALTER LIPPMANN: AFTER all the official regrets and apologies have been received and accepted, the immediate question before us is how it happened that the Nixons were exposed to these outrages. It is manifest that the whole South American tour was misconceived, that it was planned by men who did not know what was the state of mind in the cities the Vice President was to visit. For what has happened should never have been allowed to happen and those who are responsible for the management of our relations with South America must answer to the charge of gross incompetence. We must fix and we must correct the causes that led our officials into this fiasco -into what it would not be exaggeration to call a diplomatic Pearl Harbor.

Columnist DAVID LAWRENCE: WHAT a cowardly thing it would be for the United States Government to refuse to go ahead with trip previously announced and to give as the reason that it couldn't expect -from friendly governments -protection or security for a visiting delegation! Not only would the governments of Latin America have been offended, but they would have winced under the charge that they couldn't protect the distinguished visitors they themselves had invited.

The Kremlin has declared "war" against the U.S. in Latin America. It is called a "cold war," and it takes the form of demonstrations, but underneath there is an apparatus designed to aid the strategic purpose of the Communist regime. Fomenting of hostile demonstrations against the Vice President of the U.S. on his visit to various South American countries could only be achieved by direct orders of the Moscow government.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: TO give the impression of an intention to take over the internal policing of a neighbor country with whose government the U.S. is on technically friendly terms, no matter what excesses may be charged to its citizens, is not only unfortunate but a blunder. It recalls the era in which the Marines were policing banana republics and represents gratuitous support of the Communist propaganda line that the U.S. follows a policy of imperialism.

NEW YORK TIMES : THE public dispatch of 1,000 Marines and paratroopers to Caribbean bases in reply to the outrageous attack in Venezuela on Vice President and Mrs. Nixon could not do anyone any good and seems certain to do the United States harm.

The Venezuelan government was extremely remiss in failing to provide adequate protection for the Nixons, who were its guests; but the United States did not add to its prestige by making this publicly threatening and futile gesture.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS :

USA: EAGLE OR PIGEON?

SAN FRANCISCO NEWS: THE mood of our Government should not be punitive, but we think, in all decency, that in the light of these events there should be more public acknowledgment in South America of the tremendous amounts we spend for their products; a friendlier attitude toward our Point Four and other aid programs, and some show of disapproval at all the anti-Yanqui propaganda.

WASHINGTON STAR: WITH all deference, we venture to suggest that those Democrats who are trying to capitalize on the President's dispatch of troops to the Caribbean after the Caracas incident have embarked on what will prove to be the most unrewarding political venture of this generation.

Perhaps the President should have waited to see whether the mob was going to storm the American Embassy and drag Mr. and Mrs. Nixon into the street.

But we don't think so. And we don't believe the American people will think so, either.

JOURNAL OF COMMERCE: WE cannot entirely suppress a wish that Mr. Nixon could have been accompanied on his present tour by those twelve Western Senators who are working so hard to clamp new restrictions on lead and zinc imports. They would, we are sure, have found the trip instructive.

THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY: ANYBODY who has any conception at all of the interdependence of all nations must have known all the time that South American countries are understandably jittery about what the fluctuations in our economy and in our neighborly concern will mean for them.

Anyone who has traveled at all in South America must have felt the uneasiness in recent years. Anyone with any sense at all must have known that radical agitators would have been making as much illicit hay as possible among honestly worried peoples. But apparently all of us had to see Vice President Nixon despised and rejected by university students and less raucously snooted by plenty of plain citizens before we could get the idea that South Americans aren't taking us for granted the way we've been taking them for granted.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.