South to Friendship

In Mexico the key word was bienvenido--welcome. There, for two days last week, the President of the U.S. saw and felt one of the warmest examples of bienvenido of his confetti-showered career. It blazoned from a sign at Acapulco's airport, rustled in the color riot of tropical vegetation, in the rugged beauty of the cliff-crowned bay, the shiny glamour of the hotels, the cheers of the people, and in the friendliness of the President, Adolfo Lopez Mateos. President Eisenhower's trip, occasioned by his desire to demonstrate the U.S.'s deep respect for Latin American solidarity, was, in fact, a cheery and most productive political journey.

All Acapulco (pop. 10,000) turned out for Ike. The airport driveway was strewn with thousands of red carnations, the 10-mile drive to Ike's hotel, the Pierre Marques, was choked with thousands of Mexicans who rimmed the freshly whitewashed curbs, waved signs and photos and shouted greetings. Thousands more awaited Ike in the town itself when he later left his hotel for the trip to the Municipal Palace. Even on the local golf course, action stopped as Ike rode by. A sign proclaimed,

LET'S PLAY GOLF, IKE. WE'RE EXPECTING

YOU, and men stood at the club entrance with flagsticks raised in salute.

High Dives & Dancers. That afternoon, Ike and his host got away from the crowds, boarded President Lopez Mateos white, 168-ft. yacht Sotavento, cruised for four hours in the glistening bay as they talked business with their aides (one U.S. staffer: Latin American

Specialist Milton Eisenhower). Said Ike: "My position, acting as the President of the United States and with, of course, justice to my own country in mind, is to serve with you as equal partners." It was in that genial atmosphere that the two Presidents discussed the common problems of the two countries--construction of the long-projected Diablo Dam on the Rio Grande, difficulties with international marketing of coffee, lead, zinc and cotton.

Between meetings, the two Presidents entertained each other at local night clubs (the only facilities available for big-scale entertaining), were joined on one occasion by Britain's former Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, who is visiting Acapulco for his health. President Eisenhower got the full tourist treatment: brilliant fireworks, high-diving exhibitions, exotic Aztec dances, a high-style water-skiing show.

Once, before their final business meeting, Eisenhower and Lopez Mateos strolled onto a hotel lawn where they were scheduled to meet informally with the hundreds of newsmen who were covering the trip. Somehow the stroll turned into a melee, as photographers and reporters milled in confusion all over the place, tripping, crowding, shoving. As the

Presidents made a dignified but hasty retreat, Ike cracked to his host: "Next time we're down here, let's do this with only lady reporters."

New Beginning. Just 36 hours after his arrival in Acapulco, President Eisenhower returned to the airport for his flight back to the U.S. The joint communique issued after the meeting was an apt record of the friendship that had blossomed between the two men at their first meeting, the kind of personal relationship with heads of state that Ike likes best.

"The Acapulco meeting," said the communique, "was a meeting between friends. The two Presidents understood and appreciated each other from the beginning." The President of Mexico and the President of the U.S., sealing these words, shook hands firmly on Ike's leavetaking. It was a fitting end to a new beginning.

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