Visitors for Progress

Ever the perfect patrician, Peru's President Manuel Prado, 72, descended the planeside steps at Washington's MATS terminal one day last week with the sure and jaunty gait of a boulevardier revisiting a familiar haunt. He gripped President Kennedy's hand, bowed with gallant grace to kiss the gloved hand of Madame la Presidente, Jacqueline. So taken was Jackie that she nearly forgot to present the roses she was carrying to Prado's elegant and equally aristocratic wife, Clorinda. Prado, whose innate courtliness has carried him through ten such state visits around the world in the past three years, moved along the waiting line of diplomats and dignitaries with a warm handshake here, a warmer abrazo there.

Recalling Prado's last state visit as Peru's President during World War II, Kennedy welcomed his visitor as an old friend: "President Roosevelt wanted President Prado to come to our country to express his esteem for him and his leadership against the Axis. Nearly 20 years later, President Prado comes again. The U.S. President is different, times have changed, the adversaries now take a different form. But I believe that both Peru and the U.S., still standing shoulder to shoulder, fight for the same things."

Kennedy believed right, and Prado proved it almost every time he spoke. Unlike most of his fellow Latin American chief executives, who skirt the subject of Castro-Communist penetration of the hemisphere, Prado made no attempt to camouflage his feelings. He told a joint session of Congress that "Peru stands with you in the struggle against Communism in the world and in our hemisphere--whatever measures you may be required to take to combat it, you will find my country at your side."

An unusual chain of circumstances in Peru allows Prado to speak his mind. Like most Latin American Presidents, Prado is plagued with the kind of have v. have-not economics that could touch off Castro-style revolution. Prado himself is a member of the oligarchy (his father was President for two terms in the 19th century), that controls Peru through birth or wealth. He was re-elected President in 1956 only because he promised to restore legality to the outlawed, mass-based political party APRA. Once in office, Prado tried to develop the nation by switching on the currency presses. The sol sank, the economy wobbled, and Prado came under the withering fire of such critics as Pedro Beltran, publisher of Lima's influential La Prensa.

Yet Prado is relatively secure today because of a fortunate stroke of politics; he named Beltran as his Premier. Himself a conservative with the blood of conquistadores in his veins, Beltran stopped the money presses. He collected neglected taxes, trimmed excess bureaucracy, encouraged exports, curbed imports. The sol steadied, the balance of trade shifted to favorable, debts were paid. Progress is still slow, but enough projects for housing, road building and agrarian reform are taking shape to give Peruvians hope--and to warrant businesslike consideration of a Prado request last week for $29.6 million in emergency loans from Kennedy's Alliance for Progress.

With similar business on his mind, Argentina's President Arturo Frondizi arrives in the U.S. this week. The avowed purpose for his journey is a speech before the U.N. General Assembly. But the success of the trip hangs most heavily on the crucial hours that the crisis-ridden Argentine President is scheduled to spend in informal conversation with Kennedy in New York City. Frondizi believes that the Alliance for Progress should focus on nations already on the road to economic maturity (i.e., Argentina) as an object lesson for less fortunate nations. Cost of the focus on Argentina he has in mind: $2 billion.

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