A New Bloom

FOREIGN RELATIONS A New Bloom

Practically everywhere she went on her U.S. visit, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was smothered with roses, which are her symbol as well as her late father's. Lady Bird Johnson handed Mrs. Gandhi a dozen red American Beauties right after she disembarked from a helicopter on the White House lawn; later the Indian leader was variously presented with more red roses, yellow roses, artificial roses, an impressionistic painting of a rose and a gilded rose from Tiffany's. All of them could serve well to symbolize the result of her five-day visit: a new flowering in the relations between the world's two largest democracies.

President Johnson and Mrs. Gandhi, who had met before during the then Vice President's 1961 trip to India, hit it off well right from the start. Towering over the 5 ft. 2 in. visitor as they stood on the White House lawn, Johnson called for "that frankness and candor and detail that always mark conversations between good friends." He got it. "India and the U.S.," replied Mrs. Gandhi, "cannot and should not take each other for granted or allow their relations to drift." Later she said of the President: "He goes right to the point without a lot of chitchat beforehand. I like that. I like to talk business first and then have the pleasantries later if there is any time for them."

No Dancing. Starting with an hour-and-a-half get-acquainted talk in the White House, Johnson and Mrs. Gandhi had several private chats about India's domestic problems, the threat of Communist China and the presence of the U.S. in Southeast Asia. But there was plenty of time for pleasantries too. The President flattered Mrs. Gandhi by walking her home to Blair House half a block away, that night at a dinner in the White House described her as "not only a woman with an understanding heart but also a leader with a sense of vision." Wearing a gold-embroidered purple sari, her toenails painted red, Mrs. Gandhi chatted tete-a-tete with the President before and after the meal, left as soon as Violinist Isaac Stern finished his performance and before the dancing began. Explained she: "My countrymen would not approve if they heard I had been dancing."

Next day, in a talk before the National Press Club, Mrs. Gandhi showed more sympathy for the U.S.'s plight in Viet Nam than any other Indian leader had ever done before. "The Americans are in a difficult situation, and I can understand their difficulties now," she said. "I have been in my talks with Mr. Johnson impressed by the sincerity of the President's desire for a peaceful settlement in that war-torn country." Later, in a joint communique, the President and Mrs. Gandhi agreed that there should be a "just and peaceful solution of this problem" and that Red China's aggressive policies "pose a threat to peace, particularly in Asia." That night, calling at the Indian Embassy ostensibly to make a brief farewell visit, the President stayed so long talking with Mrs. Gandhi that he was finally invited to remain for the black-tie dinner. "I'm happy to be asked," said the business-suited Johnson, thus causing a protocol scramble and breaking his own practice of never accepting reciprocal invitations from state visitors.

Warm Invitation. Mrs. Gandhi left Washington with several specific aid promises from the U.S. To expand education in India, the President announced plans for an Indo-American Foundation, to be financed by $300 million in rupees held by the U.S. in Indian Food for Peace payments. To alleviate India's food shortage, he proposed shipping an additional $500 million worth of U.S. surplus commodities to India by year's end ($500 million worth is already scheduled) and appealed to other nations to match the U.S. contribution.

Mrs. Gandhi extended a warm invitation to the President to visit India, then moved on to Manhattan for a brief stop before flying to London to see Prime Minister Wilson. She gave a poised speech before the New York Economic Club, inviting private enterprise to socialist-leaning India and maintaining that India's troubles, though serious, are not really as bad as they are sometimes portrayed. With foreign assistance, she said, "we shall tide over the famine without too great suffering."

The result of Mrs. Gandhi's visit was primarily a new mood of increased warmth and understanding between the U.S. and India. She and the President decided during the week that they were going roughly in the same direction and that they could accomplish things together without making demands on each other. Mrs. Gandhi proved to be not only "a very proud, gracious and very able lady," as the President called her, but a fiercely independent ruler with a determination to equal his own. As if to illustrate that independence, she flew off from London in a Soviet plane to visit Russia's rulers in Moscow before returning to India.

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