Free Nations, Free Men

Unlike many an official guest in Washington, Sylvanus Olympic, 60. President of the new Republic of Togo, had not come demanding U.S. aid--or else. Indeed, he had a refreshingly realistic view of the problems of his and other emergent countries. Said he: "It is very easy to shout 'Freedom, Freedom,' even going to the extent of being very aggressive. But, after all, what we are looking for is not so much getting rid of a foreign ruler as to improve our standard of living, working for a better life. We must now actually prove to our people that we can have a better life from now on." After talking to Olympio, President Kennedy's thoughts followed in similar vein. Flying west to address a crowd of some 90,000 in the football stadium of the University of California in Berkeley, the President mused on the hopes and problems of the world's newer nations. "As new nations emerge from the oblivion of centuries," he said, "their first aspiration is to affirm their national identity. Their deepest hope is for a world where, within a framework of international cooperation, every country can solve its own problems according to its own traditions and ideals." In perhaps his most optimistic assessment of world affairs since taking office, Kennedy expressed confidence that these nations will choose freedom, not Communism, and that "no one can doubt that the wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men."

From Berkeley, Kennedy flew to California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, 250 miles to the south, for a personal inspection of the facilities that help make his optimism possible--U.S. retaliatory missile power. Standing on a coastal hill, he watched an Atlas missile soar out over the Pacific, learned later that it had sped 5,000 miles downrange, landing within a mile of its target. It was the first time that he had seen an ICBM fired. Then, in the relaxing atmosphere of California's Palm Springs area, where he was a weekend guest at Bing Crosby's estate, Kennedy paid a 50-minute call on another sun seeker, former President Dwight Eisenhower. They chatted mainly about world affairs.

The mere notion of Kennedy's visiting California seemed to send former Vice President Richard Nixon, deeply involved in a hard campaign to unseat Democrat Pat Brown as California's Governor, into a terrible tizzy. Noting that Robert Kennedy was also speaking in the state, Nixon said: "We welcome them. In November we are going to show these carpetbaggers a thing or two."Asked about this, Presidential Press Secretary Pierre Salinger replied: "I don't know anybody in the United States, no matter in what state he resides, who considers the President of the United States a carpetbagger."

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